Mirabell Palace & Gardens

Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau built this palace in 1606 for his mistress Salome Alt and their fifteen children. Let that sink in: a Catholic archbishop, supposedly celibate, built a palace for his lover and their enormous family, and named it Schloss Altenau after her. The scandal was monumental even by Renaissance standards, and when Wolf Dietrich's successor Markus Sittikus seized power, he banished Salome and the children, then renamed the palace Mirabell — from the Italian mirabile and bella, meaning "wonderful" and "beautiful" — as if a name change could erase the whole affair.

The gardens were reshaped around 1690 by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, the architect who would go on to design half of Vienna's most important buildings. His Baroque layout — geometric flowerbeds, mythological statues, the Pegasus fountain — remains largely intact and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1965, Julie Andrews danced through these gardens with seven children singing "Do-Re-Mi" in The Sound of Music, and the scene has drawn millions of visitors ever since. You will see tourists recreating the steps daily.

The palace's Marble Hall, with its gilded stucco and ceiling frescoes, is considered one of the most beautiful wedding venues in the world. Mozart himself performed concerts here as a child. Today it hosts chamber music concerts and civil wedding ceremonies — the Salzburg mayor's office is in the same building, so you can literally get married and file the paperwork without leaving the premises.

Then there is the Zwergerlgarten, the dwarf garden. In 1715, Prince-Archbishop Franz Anton Harrach commissioned 28 marble dwarf statues, many modelled on real court dwarfs who served as entertainers. During the Enlightenment, the statues were considered tasteless and auctioned off. Seventeen survivors were eventually recovered and returned. They are profoundly weird and utterly charming.