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Arches link the Residenzplatz with the Domplatz to the south, which is dominated by the pale marble facade of Salzburg's cathedral, the Domkirche St Rupert . Once the forum of Roman Juvavum, the site has held a succession of churches since Bishop Virgil first built a chapel here in the eighth century. Although initially conceived by Wolf Dietrich as a cathedral to outshine St Peter's in Rome, the current edifice, begun in 1614, reflects the more modest ambitions of his successor Marcus Sitticus and his favoured architect, Santino Solari. The crests of both Sitticus and Paris Lodron, who occupied the archiepiscopal throne on completion of the forty-year project, adorn the pediment of the cathedral's western facade; at ground level, modern bronze doors are flanked by monumental statues of ss Rupert, Virgil, Peter and Paul. The facade looks pretty stern and unadorned from this angle; to appreciate its delicate sense of proportion and balance step back a bit towards the western end of the square. The interior (donation requested) is impressively cavernous, although the overall effect is one of dark, cold spaciousness, only partially alleviated by the dizzying ceiling frescoes. They're at their best in and around the central dome, rebuilt after being destroyed by allied bombing on October 16, 1944, where enough daylight filters through to bring out some of their colour. Best of the Dom's intricate stucco-work is in the sequence of small chapels, on each side of the nave, whose low ceilings are crowded with personable cherubs. Left of the entrance is the Romanesque font in which Mozart was baptized, a bronze affair resting on four feet in the shape of lions' paws and decorated with reliefs of saints. Below the dome, steps descend to a starkly modern crypt, where a succession of chambers house the graves of some illustrious prelates, Paris Lodron among them. The mixture of smooth concrete slabs and ancient lumps of stone exudes the spiritual calm sometimes lacking in the tourist-tramped main body of the church above. The Dommuseum , immediately to your right as you enter the cathedral porch (mid-May to late Oct Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-6pm; oS60/4.36), owes much to the acquisitive habits of mid-seventeenth-century Archbishop Guidobald von Thun, who keenly amassed a collection of wondrous artefacts on the model of the famous Wunderkammer established by Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. What's left of Guidobald's collection (much was moved to Vienna when Salzburg became part of Austria in 1816) is displayed in its original form, a series of cabinets arranged by category: rosaries, minerals, scientific instruments, ivory, things made from goat horn, crystals, seashells and globes. To the modern eye, it looks more like a sale of upmarket bric-a-brac than a serious museum, but contemporaries of Guidobald would have regarded the sheer variety of objects on display as a manifestation of God's creative genius. Recurring stylistic motifs such as hourglasses, half-empty goblets, mussel shells and skulls are reminders that mortality and transience were preoccupations of the time. The upper floor of the museum is more conventional, with an impressive array of altarpieces, notably a surreal Temptation of St Anthony by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch. Best of the few Baroque paintings is Rottmayr's fanciful portrayal of a cherubic St Vitus being boiled in a cauldron. The damp and musty Grabungen beneath the cathedral (May to mid-Oct Wed-Sun 9am-5pm; oS20/1.45), accessible via steps outside the cathedral's north wall, expose the modest remains of its predecessors, including St Virgil's eighth-century chapel and the Romanesque basilica that superseded it. Fans of classical archeology will probably benefit most from a visit here - the recently uncovered Roman mosaic fragments are indeed impressive, featuring abstract patterns in vivid colours - but there's little to captivate the nonspecialist. Behind the cathedral to the south, Kapitelplatz centres on one of Salzburg's finest fountains, the Kapitelschwemme , an eighteenth-century horse-trough magnificently presided over by a trident-wielding statue of Neptune. At the southern end of the square, a steeply ascending pathway and the Festungsbahn funicular railway both provide access to the Hohensalzburg fortress above.
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