Leopoldskron Palace

Built in 1736 by Prince-Archbishop Leopold Anton von Firmian, Leopoldskron is a Rococo jewel set on the shore of a small lake, with the Untersberg mountain reflected in the water behind it. But its most influential resident wasn't an archbishop — it was Max Reinhardt, the visionary theatre director who bought the decaying palace in 1918 and spent years restoring it with local artisans. Reinhardt hosted legendary salons here, entertaining artists, writers, and intellectuals from across Europe, and it was from these gatherings that the idea for the Salzburg Festival was born.

When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Reinhardt — who was Jewish — was forced into exile, and Leopoldskron was confiscated. He died in New York in 1943, never returning to the palace he had lovingly restored. After the war, the property was eventually returned and became the home of the Salzburg Global Seminar, an international fellowship program founded in 1947 that continues to bring together emerging leaders from around the world.

For most visitors, though, Leopoldskron is the Sound of Music house. When Hollywood scouts arrived in 1964, they chose this palace as the exterior of the von Trapp family home. The famous Venetian Salon — with its gold wall panels and mirrors — was meticulously replicated in a Hollywood studio for the ballroom dance scene. The lake out back is where the children and Maria capsized the rowboat. And the white gazebo where Liesl danced "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" originally stood in the palace gardens before being relocated to Hellbrunn after tourists kept injuring themselves.

Leopoldskron is now a boutique hotel, and you can book a room in the palace where Reinhardt dreamed up the Salzburg Festival and Julie Andrews pretended to be a nun. The views across the lake to the Untersberg are unchanged.