In its Cathedral Salzburg possesses a gem of architectural beauty which has been the admiration of generations of architects and students, and (as one authority says) "has probably provided more inspiration for the artist and the student of architecture than any other church north of the Italian Alps."
On the Residenz-Platz, the centre of which is adorned by a beautiful fountain nearly fifty feet in height dating from the latter part of the seventeenth century, consisting of a colossal figure of Atlas surrounded by equally colossal hippopotami, the work of Anton Dario, is situated the ancient palace of the Archbishops, formerly known as the Residenz, now the Imperial Residence. This fine palace which was erected at various dates from the end of the sixteenth down to the first two decades of the eighteenth century contains many traces of the splendour which characterized the larger buildings which were erected by ecclesiastics at the time the influence of the Renaissance was at its height. The ceilings and wall of the principal salons and halls are especially notable, and in some cases are most elaborately decorated. The Government Offices which are opposite the Residenz although known as the Neugebäude (possibly because they included the Post and Telegraph office), in reality date, at any rate in part, from the reign of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, although they have been modernized, altered, and added to from time to time. In the octagonal tower was placed, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, a beautiful carillon, the work of a watchmaker named Sauter at the commencement of the seventeenth century, known as the Glockenspiel, which chimes thrice daily at 7 a.m., 11 a.m., and 6 p.m.
The Archbishops of Salzburg were not only in past ages ecclesiastics and diplomatists but also sportsmen. Most, indeed, seem to have been great lovers of horses. Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Salzburg, built some magnificent stables adorned with marble on the slopes of the Mönchsberg; attached to them were a covered riding school for use in winter, and another open-air one for summer use. Though the stables themselves are now barracks, the open-air school is still one of the sights of the town. In the side of the Mönchsberg were hewn in 1693 three great galleries for the accommodation of spectators of the sports in the summer riding school; they have long ago been overgrown with ivy and creepers which add greatly to their picturesqueness, but are still occasionally used for the purpose for which they were originally constructed.
In the winter riding school there is an interesting ceiling fresco depicting a joust or tournament dating from the last decade of the seventeenth century.
Several of the Archbishops of Salzburg appear to have had a liking for rock excavations, and the Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach was one of the number. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, in 1767 to be precise, he constructed the Neuthor, a tunnel through the solid rock some four hundred and fifty feet in length, which it took two years to make. It pierced through the Mönchsberg and thus united the suburb of Riedenberg with the rest of the town. At the Riedenberg end is a statue to St. Sigismund in commemoration of the Archbishop, who placed his own medallion at the town end of the tunnel with the Latin inscription "Te saxa loquntur" (The very stones praise thee) above it.
THE SCHLOSS MIRABELL
To the Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, or rather to his passion for the beautiful daughter of a Salzburg merchant whose name was perhaps not inappropriately Salome, the charming Schloss Mirabell chiefly owes its existence. Here (so the story goes) the beautiful Salome Alt was installed as mistress, amid splendour and lavish expenditure befitting a King's favourite. For her were constructed and laid out delightful gardens, with fine terraces, shady walks, wide lawns of exquisitely "velvety" turf, the like of which we have seldom seen even in the "grass" counties of England; quaintly shaped flower-beds, fountains and ponds, mazes and avenues of fine trees. For her, too, were numerous groups of statuary, and single figures of a mythological and artistic character installed. Some of these are of considerable merit; and few are without distinctive decorative value in the surroundings amid which they have been placed.
In the gardens themselves there is a constant succession of delightful flowers all the year round. On the occasion of our last visit the sweetly scented linden avenue was in full bloom, whilst roses were in profusion—we were told they bloom almost all the year round in this favoured and beautiful spot—and the jasmine, orange trees, and many other beautiful and homely flowers perfumed the summer air, and spread out in a riot of colour on every hand. Aloes, palms, Portugal laurels, daphne, and other shrubs afford relief to the eye, and in the background, towering high above the quietude of this old-fashioned garden, looms the vast and commanding Hohen-Salzburg, with its roofs and pinnacles shimmering and glancing in the sunshine of the upper air.
In the gardens are also the interesting aviary of the Salzburg Society for the Protection of Birds, and the former Summer Theatre near the French Garden with the grassy stage and wings formed of "trimly" clipped hedges.
The mansion itself suffered severely from a fire in 1818, but the Marble Hall and staircase which escaped are well worth seeing, as are also the decorations of several of the older rooms.