The Saltzburg Romance

The scandal that was the romance between the Prince Bishop Wolf-Dietrich von Rathenau and Salome Alt, rocked the Roman Catholic church and had the Pope and the local residence of Saltsburg up in arms but it did nothing to stop it and when you look at the fact that in their life together they had 15 children it would appear that nothing was going to stop them.

There has been a settlement in this place for some 5000 years but Saltsburg really can in to its own when the romans took over around 200 BC and solidified the regions bi 15 BC. Probably when Gladiator came to lead the Roman legions and fight the Gauls and teach them how to speak Roman with an Aussie accent.

This amazing city was fairly well protected by the hills surrounding it on one side and the river on the other side. It was called the Rome of the North and around 700 -- 800 AD the cathedral was first built.
Its wealth cam from the Hallien Salt Mines and this was excavated and transported on barges down the river.
The cathedral was burnt down around 1100 AD from fighting in the region , rebuilt and then again caught fire and burnt down in 1598. It was then that the now Prince Bishop , Wolf - Dietrich, summoned thousand of Italian artisans and Hungarian labourers were brought in to rebuild the Cathedral and it took 14 years to do , which in itself is pretty remarkable.

In this time the Alten Residence and the Schloss Mirabell Palace were built , the latter were Wolf- Dietrich and Salome lived.

So the following are images of our day walking around Saltzburg.


We started off on a guided walking tour-- at the Schloss Mirabel Palace

 The Palace is well preserved and has very extensive gardens.

 

 

 

 Above is Saltsburg's favourite son Amadeus Mozart's main  legacy apart from his music - a dedication from Satzburg with the Mozarteum University.

Beautiful rose arbours and the exceptional avery

 A rear view of Mr A, walking alongside an Irishman who used to work at Intel and now works for Pfisser-- small world.

 Every where you look there are statues and fountains and on a Saturday like this was , about 3 consecutive civil weddings there -- well why not - always be able to say that "we got married in a Palace " line to roll out.

 

Below is where Mozart lived from the age of `17 until 25

This is Sissy our guide who was really knowledgeable and entertaining -- she did a great job --If you are ever here then its through Panorama Tours.

 

 

So below are some random shots as we made our way over from the old city to the side with the cathedral - as well as shops and stuff of course

 

Below is the yellow house where Mozart was born and if you did not already know that Saltzburg is also very famous for its Xmas decorations shops (all year round) and xmas markets

We couldn't get into the concert hall but amazing music  festivals are held here through July and August -- Oh and we w2ere informed that this is were Christopher Plummer sang Adel Wiess in the Sound of Music -- and if you didn't already know  this song was invented by Hollywood and was unknown in Austria until the movie came out.

 

 Below is part of the old city wall and again amazing -- like Channia in Crete-- where building were allowed to be built off of the old wall--- Oh and manay statues to Bishops and Popes around

So this is the Strazburg Cathedral and the buggies that you also tend to find around the world for the tourists -- the horses are as you would expect from Austria in a bit better shape than those of their equivalent in Aegina. 

 

 

The smallest house in the city below is 1.5M wide

 Unlike Mrs A will make you think I was actually on google map to find a particular shop she wanted to find -- also a chance to capture one of my oldest Chelsea polo tops.

We paid a visit to the Cathedral and Lynda did the tour and as you would expect from the place that wants to be the Rome of the North the Opulence and Grandeur is second only to the Vatican.

 And from the Cathedral we took the opportunity to look around the Alten Residence were the Prince Bishop lived until the palace was built for him and his Salome--

 Another wonderful example of the wealth of the church is so visible when in this city anyway , were examples of the tiny and cramped dwellings of the servants and poor.

There is a second floor art gallery that has , through a foundation that was set up in 1927, tried to reinstate the art treasures that were in the city that were looted by Napoleon when he did his European road trip. I rather like this description.

This is a Rubens which I was surprised that we are able to get shots of

And a decent painting of Wolf-Dietrich himself

And one of the royal childrens play sledges

 

And so after that touristy stuff Lynda and I did a quick Saltsburg marathon -- don't know what the record was but we did it in around 1 hour 5 minutes so not too bad --- :-)

Ok so it was an effort and had to lean a bit to catch my breath -- now where are the rest of them-- what do you mean it's tomorrow -- so we ran all of that for nothing -- blast it. Now we will have to do the whole thing over again.

 

 

So after all this palacing and churching and walking we rounded it off with a really traditional early dinner --- at the Camino Essbar for traditional Schnitzel

 

 
 
 

And Finally Mrs A and me relaxed in the Hotel garden with a bottle of white wine and 10 hands of Kaluki -- ande as the evidence shows below -- I got slaughtered by the Kaluki Queen herself.

Ah well Tomorrows another day.

 

                                        Gutten Morgan