Not just a palace, its a community: Hellbrunn Palace in Salzburg

Hellbrunn Palace, located in the southern part of the city of Salzburg in Austria, was built in 1612 to 1619 by Markus Sittikus von Hohenems, the Prince Archbishop to Salzburg. The Hellbrunn Palace, which was built in three years, was intended to serve as a summer palace for the Archbishop. The architecture is by Italian architect Santino Solari who was commissioned by the Archbishop. Inside, the walls of the palace are covered in 17th and 18th century paintings with themes which include a depiction of Maria Immaculata, Roman gods and goddesses, and King Neptune.

The Hellbrunn Palace

Hellbrunn Palace is more of a manor than a castle. The palace is three stories tall and rectangular with a large pavilion nestled in the courtyard. Hellbrunn Palace is home to a nearby zoo, the beautifully manicured “pleasure garden” with its peaceful ponds adorned with a collection of statuary and an assortment of water fountains designed to play tricks on visitors. The grounds host a Christmas Market in the winter and in the summer tourists flock to the gardens for the infamous water games of the many trick fountains.

Trick Fountains

The palace grounds host a sophisticated series of trick fountains originally built for the purpose of amusing the Archbishop. One of the best examples of the trick fountains is the marble table with ten marble seats in the courtyard, often used by the Archbishop for dinner parties. Etiquette demanded that no guest in the presence of the Archbishop should ever rise from their seat as long as their host was seated, but the Archbishop had a surprise for each guest that would make that impossible. Built into the marble seats, with the exception of the Archbishop’s chair, was a hidden fountain that shot a single stream of water up into each seat. The marble table and chairs were surrounded by trick fountains that shot up a single stream of water behind each guest. To this day, history records these trick fountain events as water games.

Mechanical Theatre

The mechanical theatre was built in 1750 by Lorenz Rosenegger and has nearly 200 intricate water-driven figures busy toiling at their occupations like hammering, sawing, and other activities. Meticulous attention to detail and movement depicts life in a small Baroque city, and it is completely water driven. The movement of the characters is controlled by the beat from a completely water driven organ. The mechanical theatre is a masterful work of art and design making it one of the most popular tourist attractions at the Hellbrunn Palace.

Sound of Music

The extraordinarily successful motion picture from 1965, “The Sound of Music”, was filmed in and around the Salzburg area. One of the most memorable scenes from the movie was filmed on the grounds of the Hellbrunn Palace, in the garden. It is the scene where Liesl (Charmian Carr) danced with Franz (Gilchrist Stuart) and sang “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” inside the glass gazebo, in the rain. To this day, the glass gazebo is one of the most popular attractions on the Hellbrunn Palace grounds.