A Love Story in Stone - Mirabell Palace
A Palace for Salome
In 1606, Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau commissioned a pleasure palace on the north bank of the Salzach, just outside the medieval city walls. It wasn't for state functions. Raitenau built it for Salome Alt, his longtime mistress, who moved in with their fifteen children. The estate was initially called Schloss Altenau - a name combining Salome's family name, Alt, with Au, the local term for the elevated riverbank where it stood. Reports suggest it was completed in roughly six months, following Italian and French models that reflected Raitenau's cosmopolitan taste. Traces of the original building still survive in the southwestern corner and the cellar.
Raitenau's tenure didn't end well. In 1611, his forces invaded the Berchtesgaden Provostry, provoking a military response from Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria. Bavarian troops marched into Salzburg, and by 1612 Raitenau had been captured and imprisoned - first at Hohenwerfen Castle, then at Hohensalzburg Fortress, where he remained until his death in 1617. His cousin and successor, Markus Sittikus von Hohenems, promptly expelled Salome and her children from the palace and renamed it "Mirabell" - from the Italian mirabile (wonderful) and bella (beautiful). The new name was a deliberate act of erasure: Sittikus wanted no trace of his cousin's personal life attached to the property.
Hildebrandt's Baroque Transformation
The palace changed hands through several archbishops before its most significant transformation. Between 1721 and 1727, Prince-Archbishop Franz Anton von Harrach commissioned architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt - the same architect behind Vienna's Schloss Belvedere - to rebuild Mirabell as a unified baroque complex. Hildebrandt merged the previously separate buildings into a single cohesive palace, adding the Marble Hall as the archbishop's banqueting room and the grand marble staircase, later decorated with sculptures by Georg Raphael Donner in 1726. Frescoes by Johann Michael Rottmayr and Gaetano Fanti adorned the ceilings. The result was one of the most elaborate baroque residences in the prince-archbishopric.
The Mirabell Gardens had already been redesigned decades earlier. From 1687, architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach reworked the layout under Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun, establishing the geometric baroque parterre that still defines the garden today. The basic axial alignment - from the palace south toward the cathedral and the fortress - dates from this era.
Fire and Reconstruction
On 30 April 1818, a devastating fire swept through Salzburg and heavily damaged Mirabell Palace. The Rottmayr and Fanti frescoes were destroyed. The massive eastern tower was lost entirely. The Marble Hall and the grand marble staircase survived the 1818 fire, preserving two of Mirabell Palace’s most remarkable historic interiors.
Peter de Nobile, the Habsburg court's architectural consultant, designed the reconstruction, though Salzburg engineer Johann Wolfgang Hagenauer carried out the actual work. Together they gave the palace its current neoclassical exterior, replacing the destroyed baroque facades with clean lines, restrained window surrounds, and understated stucco. The contrast between the ornate baroque interiors and the sober neoclassical exterior remains one of Mirabell's most distinctive features today.
From Archbishops to City Government
In 1854, Emperor Franz Joseph opened the Mirabell Gardens to the public. In 1870, Schloss Mirabell became property of the city of Salzburg.
Since 1947, Schloss Mirabell has housed Salzburg’s mayor and parts of the city administration. The Marble Hall, once reserved for archbishops and their guests, became - and remains - a venue for concerts, weddings, and civic ceremonies.
The palace entered popular culture in 1965, when several scenes from The Sound of Music were filmed in the gardens. The Pegasus Fountain, the Do-Re-Mi steps, and the Dwarf Garden all appear in the film's "Do-Re-Mi" sequence with Julie Andrews and the von Trapp children. The gardens, along with the entire Salzburg Old Town, were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
