Frohnburg Castle

The Frohnburg (sometimes spelled Fronburg) is located in the Hellbrunn Landscape Garden at Hellbrunner Allee No. 53 in Salzburg.It was once known as Grafenauerhof or Schloss Kuenburg and is a typical Salzburg rural mansion.

Built circa 1620 as a smaller structure (Schlössl, Lustgarten, and Meierei), the complex was first controlled by Baron Kuenburg, then by Baron Froberg, and finally by the Counts of Kuenburg from 1670 until 1960.The castle’s building dates back to roughly 1670/80, when Johann Josef Graf von Kuenburg renovated and extended it.

Following WWII, the structure was taken over by American occupying forces.The Republic of Austria purchased Frohnburg Castle in 1960 in order to convert the buildings for the Carl Orff Institute.A dormitory was later erected.The palace is still a part of the Mozarteum University.

The castle served as the von Trapp family’s residence in the 1965 film The Sound of Music, alongside Schloss Leopoldskron for exterior scenes.

The coat of arms cartouche above the eastern entry portal is evocative of the Kuenburg period.A high wall surrounds the castle and the castle grounds on all sides.

The palace courtyard is located on the palace’s west flank, on the avenue at the palace’s historically single entrance.The 17th-century wrought-iron entry gate on Hellbrunner Allee is bordered on both sides by porter’s and gardener’s houses.

The castle, with its once-impressive baroque castle garden, faces east towards the Salzach.The major elements of the baroque palace garden are two geometric garden ponds and the central fountain basin (dug in by occupation forces circa 1954, unearthed and rebuilt in 2000).The wall fountain portraying the naiad Arethusa being hugged by a dolphin is also interesting.The fountain was designed in response to Giovanni Battista Cavalieri’s Antiquarum statuarum urbis Romae tertius et quartus libro (Roma 1593, fol. 63).Because many of the figures in Hellbrunn are based on Cavalieri’s designs, this fountain might have originated there as well.

The previously landscape-shaping tree-lined castle axis in the Grafenau (also known as Herrenau or Josefiau) is largely visible, and it has been developed as a fruit-tree avenue according to historical models since 2014.The previous bridge in the castle’s axis across the former Eschenbach can only be recognized to a limited extent now, and a parking lot has adversely impacted the scenery.

A resurrection of the Eschenbach and replanting of the baroque garden were discussed multiple times, as they would considerably improve the Frohnburg castle ensemble.