Mirabell Palace

Mirabell Palace (German: Schloss Mirabell) is a historic structure in the Austrian city of Salzburg. The palace and its gardens are cultural historical monuments and part of the UNESCO World historical Site Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg.

The palace was erected in 1606 on the Salzach river’s north bank, north of the old city walls, at the request of Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau. The Archbishop suffered from gout and had a stroke the previous year, so he decided to build a pleasure palace for himself and his mistress Salome Alt to avoid the city’s small streets. It was formerly known as Schloss Altenau and was said to have been erected in six months using Italian and French models.

When Raitenau was ousted and imprisoned in Hohensalzburg Castle in 1612, his successor Mark Sittich von Hohenems exiled Salome Alt and her family. The palace’s current name was derived from the Italian words mirabile, bella, which mean “amazing” and “wonderful” respectively. From 1721 to 1727, it was reconstructed in opulent Baroque style following to designs drawn by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt.

The latter King Otto of Greece was born here on June 1, 1815, when his father, the Wittelsbach crown prince Ludwig I of Bavaria, served as stadtholder in the ancient Electorate of Salzburg. The current Neoclassical look originates from around 1818, when the building was renovated following a fire. From 1851 to 1863, Archbishop Maximilian Joseph von Tarnóczy lived here. Hans Makart’s father worked as a chamberlain here.Joachim Haspinger (1776-1858), a Capuchin priest and Tyrolean Rebellion commander, spent his final year in a modest apartment.

In 1866, the City of Salzburg bought the palace. Following WWII, it was temporarily utilized as the mayor’s office and housed numerous municipal administration agencies.

The “Salzburg Palace Concerts” (German: Salzburger Schlosskonzerte), conducted by Luz Leskowitz, take place in Mirabell Palace’s Marble Hall. It is also a popular wedding venue.

Gretl Braun, Eva Braun’s sister (who subsequently married Adolf Hitler), married SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein, who served as Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler’s liaison officer on Hitler’s staff, on June 3, 1944. Their wedding took place at Mirabell Palace, in the presence of Hitler, Himmler, and Martin Bormann. Eva, her sister, handled all of the wedding details.

The Mirabellgarten was planned by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and built under Prince-Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun in 1687. Mythology-themed sculptures from 1730 and four groups of sculpture (Aeneas, Hercules, Paris, and Pluto) by Italian artist Ottavio Mosto from 1690 may be seen in its geometrically-arranged gardens. It is notable for its boxwood patterns, which include a sylvan theater (Heckentheater) built between 1704 and 1718. In 1725, an orangery was erected.

Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria made the gardens open to the public. It is still one of the most famous tourist sites in Salzburg today. Several sequences from the film The Sound of Music were shot here.Maria and the kids sing ‘Do-Re-Mi’ as they dance around the Pegasus fountain, utilizing the steps as a musical scale.