Hellbrunner Park

Hellbrunner Allee in Salzburg, Austria, was designed by Prince Archbishop Markus Sittikus von Hohenems in 1615.It is now the oldest maintained stately avenue in Central Europe, and most likely the oldest of its sort in the world. The 2.8 km long,  straight avenue extends from the east doorway of Hellbrunn Palace in the imaginary axis of the palace Hellbrunn to the Freisaal moated fortress in the Nonntal area.Along the way, there are several majestic houses.Its northern extension goes as a walk and cycling route past Freisaal Castle via the Freisaal protected landscape region, into the old town.Since 1933, the avenue has been designated as a natural monument, and it has been a protected landscape feature of the city of Salzburg since 1986.The Hellbrunner Allee is the focal point of the Hellbrunn Landscape Garden, which surrounds the Hellbrunn Palace Park.

Hellbrunner Allee was built between 1613 and 1615 as part of the Hellbrunn pleasure palace, with the surrounding vast gardens, commissioned by Prince Archbishop Markus Sittikus and constructed in the late Renaissance style.This castle garden has three parts: the geometric pleasure garden, the vast hunting garden, and the natural holy garden in the south.These walled gardens are followed by the landscape garden Hellbrunn, which has three axes:

• the palace axis (with the Fürstenweg, the oldest avenue of linden trees in Central Europe)
• the garden axis (axis across the Salzach to Goldenstein Castle )
• Hellbrunner Allee on the axis to Freisaal Castle

This avenue served as a distinguished entry route, with huge manicured gardens on both sides of the princely, tree-lined walk.Hellbrunn boasts the best-preserved Italian-style Renaissance water works.The green space on both sides of the avenue, with the Hellbrunnerbach to the west and the (now dry) Eschenbach to the east, is by far Europe’s best-preserved Renaissance landscape garden.

The history of these houses, which generally incorporate the environs via side avenues spreading out into the environment, is frequently linked to the avenue’s constructor, Markus Sittikus, or the prince-archbishops.

The Hellbrunner Allee was designed as a symbolic link between Hellbrunn Palace and the city of Salzburg or the adjacent Freisaal Palace; it formed an axis with the continuation in a southerly direction to the moated fortress of Anif, which no longer exists.Despite the goal to make a statement and demonstrate dominance, the road does not lead directly to the palace.The castle can only be approached by a curve, which adds to the surprise factor upon approaching the castle forecourt, which was created in the Mannerism style.The end of the avenue and the walled portion of the palace are now divided by a guest parking lot.

Black poplars, pedunculate oaks, and beech trees were planted during the construction of Hellbrunner Allee.Even today, the walk is lined with several hundred-year-old oaks and represents the province of Salzburg’s largest and most precious supply of ancient wood.

The avenue is especially significant for bats, nesting birds, and wood-dwelling bugs.Many of the beetle species found here are now considered endangered throughout Central Europe.To maintain them, appropriate steps from the viewpoint of nature conservation are necessary.

The Hellbrunner Allee, coupled with the Fürstenweg, another aristocratic axis, create a 9.9-hectare region stretching eastward from Hellbrunn Palace to Salzach.This region was proclaimed a protected landscape portion of the city of Salzburg in 1986 because to its environmental protection and historical significance, and the former natural monument “Hellbrunnerallee,” which had existed since 1933, was disbanded at the same time.