Salzburg

Raven Travel Guides Europe’s Salzburg travel guide goes to the real Salzburg, an eccentric place that is full of variety and places most visitors don’t know about. 

Most travellers know Salzburg for having the mightiest castle in Austria, prominent Baroque architecture and a striking location with a mountain background. 

The further you walk – and Salzburg is a beautiful and very walkable city – the more you will challenge the conventional view of the place. There’s a lot more than Baroque churches and palaces and the locations of a feelgood 1960s musical. 

This travel guide has all you need to know about visiting Salzburg. 

Everyone has heard of the beauty of Salzburg, but it's not one of Europe's best known cities. Crowded into a narrow riverside space, the old town is a network of laneways surrounded by a postcard mountain landscape. The main institutions are the vast Alte Residenz city palace, now occupied by the DomQuartier, and the ancient abbey of St Peter and its churchyard, providing access to the ancient catacombs. 

Find out about this early Christian cave network associated with two saints, a real one and a not-so-real one. Salzburg was one of the earliest centres of the central European church, with some of Europe’s oldest religious communities. 

All this represents history reaching back into the darkest era of the post-Roman age, when the church pioneers laid the foundations of a powerful Christian city-state. Above it all sits Hohensalzburg, the extraordinary medieval and Renaissance castle of the Salzburg prince-archbishops, perched above their cathedral and palace complex. 

The city was dominated for centuries by the archbishops. Their apartments in the castle have been richly restored. 

In Salzburg, culture is almost everything. The city is keenly aware of its links with the young Mozart and stages one of Europe's great cultural festivals, the Salzburger Festspiele, which is the city’s focus for six weeks at the height of summer. 

But it's important not to miss the other elements that help make Salzburg a fascinating city for travellers.

Follow the narrow winding medieval Steingasse under archways, and the Imbergstiege stairs that lead uphill to the tiny St Johannes am Imberg church, wedged into a hillside space. This precious but hard-to-find church, tucked halfway up some medieval steps, was a place W.A. Mozart supposedly loved. There wasn't much else Mozart liked about Salzburg, where he was born and where two houses where he lived remain to visit.

Near St Johannes am Imberg, Stefan-Zweig-Weg passes cross stations through the Felixpforte. Above this, peaceful walking paths lead past the Kapuzinerkloster monastery and around the old defensive walls and provide perhaps the best views of the castle and old town.

See also the decorated Baroque Pferdeschwemme, where the court horses were washed and groomed, created by one of Austria’s great architects. But don’t miss the quirkier figures that make up the Zwerglgarten. 

Visitors love the city’s music, and there’s plenty of concerts to enjoy, including in the churches. 

Salzburg can seem rather expensive, but it doesn't have to be that way. Get all the Salzburg tips on:

• Reasonably priced accommodation
• Budget meals
• A public transport ticket for travellers that's (almost) free 

Enjoy a rich travel experience with big savings. Check out the 14-page Salzburg travel guide, your best investment in a visit to one of the most fascinating places in central Europe.