There is something new to see on every street and corner; a person could walk for days and still not see it all. Don’t forget to get a free booklet handed out by the Information Office (Big “I”) called Salzburg Card & Sights. Visitors must queue up and ask for it! Sight numbers on free maps available all over Salzburg correspond with more details in this handout about each sight including visiting hours, and admission costs. I found it invaluable and walked streets with it clutched in my sweaty hand.
Anyone walking to the fortress, funicular or St. Peter’s Cemetery will cross Chapter Square, Kapitelplatz. The spacious square is bordered by the Cathedral in the South, Cathedral provisory and Archiepiscopal palace in the East, and wing of St. Peter’s Monastery in the West.
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Salzburg transportation map
Chapter Square Horse bath fountain Salzburg
once a Horse Bath, now a fountain in Salzburg
The Horse Bath or Chapter Fountain is a few steps off the spacious square. Originally, a horse pond was situated in the center of Chapter Square during the Middle Ages but this “new” fountain was built under Archbishop Leopold Firmian in 1732, modeled on Roman fountains. The ramp used by horses to access the water leads up to Neptune, holding a trident and crown, and mounted on a seahorse spurting water.
Old Market Square, Alter Markt, has another fountain. St. Florian Fountain was built in 1488 to replace a former ornamental fountain. Its octagonal basin was built from 1685 to 1687 and is surrounded by two marble steps. Corner columns are decorated with acanthus and rosettes, an intricate scrollwork grill rests on the water basin, and a statue of St. Florian von Lorch perches on top of the fountain column. Old burgher houses line the Old Marketplace whose cores often dates back to the Middle Ages, although overlaid by modern architecture.
Just by happenstance, we came across two curiosities along the perimeter of Old Market Square:
– The smallest house in Salzburg’s historic city center is only 1.42 meters/4.66 feet wide. Located next to Tomaselli Coffeehouse, the tiny house was built to close a narrow alley between 1830 and 1860; and
the smallest house in Salzburg, Austria – only 4 feet wide
Salzburg weather station, built in 1888
– A Wetterstation (Weather Station). This meteorological station from 1888 is near the edge of Alter Markt Square. Erected by the “Stadtverein Salzburg” in 1888 and refurbished in 2010, it contains a thermometer, barometer, hygrometer and there is also an elevation mark on the pedestal.
one of Salzburg’s many arcades
unusual and decorative motorcycle on a Salzburg street
Judengasse in Salzburg is often considered part of Getreidegasse since the narrow lane curves from the Old Marketplace to the Waagplatz. The earliest documentary evidence of a Jewish settlement in Salzburg dates back to 1284 while the Judengasse and a Synagogue at number 15 were first documented in 1377. A Judengasse (literally, Jewish Street aka “Ghetto”) throughout Europe during the Middle Ages was the center of Jewish settlement for people who were discriminated against and not allowed to settle freely through a city. Salzburg’s Judengasse is one of the oldest thoroughfares and part of the Jewish district up to their expulsion in 1498.
University Square, Universitatsplatz, is another important square in the city center, near the oldest core of the Altstadt and once the site of a nunnery/monastery garden. It wasn’t unusual to have a monastery in which nuns and monks formed two wings of the same entity in those days. Only when the Old University Campus was constructed in the early Seventeenth Century with the associated College Church, Kollegienkirche, was the garden was made into a square. The College Church was closed for eventual remodeling.
College Church, Salzburg
selling flowers in the Green Market, Salzburg
Today, University Square is more known for the daily Green Market, Grunmarket. This traditional farm market dates back to the Eighteenth Century and is filled with stands selling fresh produce, flowers and snack food including “Bosna.” Bosna (Where did it get that name?) is the most popular snack food in Salzburg, made from two different bratwursts, onions, mustard, spices and served in an open bun. Sounds like a good old hot dog to me!
I will admit that after all two weeks of sightseeing, delicious Austrian food and sniffing those hot dogs, it was time for a change and some comfort food. Eeny, meeny...between McDonald’s and Burger King, and eeny said a Big Whopper, fries and Coke. Yum…
breathtaking Salzburg street