|
From Makartplatz, Dreifaltigkeitsgasse leads northwest towards the broad flagstoned expanse of Mirabellplatz, where virtually every tour bus in the city seems to pick up and drop off its daily cargo of sightseers. Running along the western side of the square is the grey-brown facade of Schloss Mirabell , originally built by Archbishop Wolf Dietrich as a palatial home for Salome Alt, the mistress with whom the energetic prelate sired at least a dozen children. This relationship with the daughter of a respected local burgher actually endeared Wolf Dietrich to the Salzburgers, not least because it appeared to be a genuine love match. There's nothing to suggest that the archbishop was anything other than a loyal and devoted partner, and he did his utmost to secure a stable and dignified future for Salome and the kids - the Austrian Emperor Rudolf II graciously offered to provide them all with noble titles. After Dietrich's fall from power, the palace was requisitioned by Marcus Sitticus who, obviously far from satisfied with the Hohensalzburg and the Residenz, felt the need for a third official archiepiscopal home. Completely revamped by Lukas von Hildebrandt in the early eighteenth century, and further reconstructed after a fire in the nineteenth, the Schloss very much looks like the civic administration building it has now become - a rather unassuming office block centred on a plain courtyard. Its one truly outstanding feature is the marble staircase by Baroque master George Raphael Donner, located beside the west entrance (if you're approaching from Mirabellplatz, proceed straight through the courtyard to the arch on the far side, and go through the first door on your right). Given the utilitarian appearance of the rest of the Schloss, it's a deliciously extravagant and sensual piece of work. Plump cherubs lounge around on the balustrade, watched over by Graeco-Roman gods and goddesses who occupy wall niches in the stairwell, the whole ensemble sculpted out of smooth, pinkish stone. The archway immediately west of the staircase leads through to the Mirabell gardens behind the building, laid out during the rule of Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun according to plans provided by his favourite architect, Fischer von Erlach. The first thing that catches your eye is a greening copper statue of Pegasus, caught in mid-prance by sculptor Caspar Gras in 1661, and moved here on Erlach's instructions to provide a focus for this part of the garden. Just to the north, a staircase guarded by a brace of curiously goat-faced unicorns leads up to the rose-filled high ground of the adjoining Kurgarten , which offers a much-photographed view back across the city towards the Hohensalzburg. Immediately west of the Pegasus statue, steps followed by a small wooden bridge lead to the Zwerglgarten ("Dwarf Garden"), occupying the crown of an old defensive bastion, the only surviving portion of the massive system of fortifications built by Santino Solari between 1620 and 1646. It was laid out as a park and peopled with a series of grotesque statues of dwarfs a century later - proof that the Teutonic fascination for garden gnomes goes back a long way. The main body of the Mirabell gardens stretches south from the Pegasus statue, an avenue of trees running alongside ornamental flowerbeds which are seasonally replanted in order to provide year-round colour. A central pond is surrounded by four Baroque sculptures by Ottavio Muto, each of which purports to be an allegory of one of the four elements - earth, air, fire and water - although it's not easy to deduce this from the gratuitously writhing, semi-naked figures on display. Nestling on the eastern side of the gardens is the Barockmuseum (Tues-Sat 9am-noon & 2-5pm, Sun 10am-noon; oS40/?2.91; www.barockmuseum.at ), which focuses on Austrian art of that period, although it is primarily devoted to the preliminary sketches made by artists prior to the execution of a major work rather than the finished paintings themselves. While it's a useful insight into how the art of Troger, Donner and Maulpertsch developed, those with limited time should stick to the city's Baroque churches instead.
Your Tip for Schloss Mirabell and the Mirabell Gardens
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Schloss Mirabell and the Mirabell Gardens - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Schloss Mirabell and the Mirabell Gardens - visit the main Schloss Mirabell and the Mirabell Gardens forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Schloss Mirabell and the Mirabell Gardens webguide section below! Thanks.
|
