Sound of Music Locations in Salzburg

The Sound of Music is set in Salzburg, Austria, in the years around the Anschluss of 1938, and in 1964 Robert Wise brought his film crew to the city and the countryside around it. Many of the outdoor scenes were shot on location, while many of the interiors were recreated in studios.

This post sorts the Sound of Music locations into the ones you can reach on foot in the city and the ones outside it, from Leopoldskron and Hellbrunn to Mondsee and the hills. If you'd rather walk the city scenes in order, our Sound of Music Walking Tour has the route.

For the main Sound of Music locations in one go, there's the guided Original Sound of Music Tour, a half-day trip by bus. It takes you to Hellbrunn and Nonnberg Abbey, to Leopoldskron, which you see from across its lake, and to the wedding church in Mondsee, out in the lake district. Someone else does the driving, so you get from place to place without sorting out the connections yourself.

Sound of Music Locations in Salzburg's Old Town

The Felsenreitschule and "Edelweiss"

Of the three festival halls on the Hofstallgasse, the Felsenreitschule is the one from the film: the Captain sings "Edelweiss" here at the festival, and the family slips away during "So Long, Farewell" before they can collect their prize. In 1693, 96 arcades in three tiers were cut into its rock for watching riding displays.

The Pferdeschwemme, the old horse pond

The Pferdeschwemme on Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz is one of the Sound of Music locations with only a brief appearance in the film. The archbishop's horses from the court stables were watered and washed here, and in the middle a horse tamer holds a rearing horse in front of a wall painted with horses.

The Winkler Terrace on the Mönchsberg

During "Do-Re-Mi", Maria and the children look out over Salzburg from the Winkler Terrace on the Mönchsberg, in front of the Museum der Moderne. The terrace is named after the Grand Café Winkler, which hotelier Hermann Winkler opened here in 1947.

Toscaninihof and the telegram

In the film, Rolf, now in uniform, stops Liesl in the Toscaninihof and hands her a telegram from Berlin for her father. The courtyard behind the festival halls at the foot of the Mönchsberg is named after the conductor Arturo Toscanini.

St. Peter's Cemetery and St. Margaret's Chapel

Among the graves of St. Peter's Cemetery, St. Margaret's Chapel, built between 1485 and 1491, is one of the Sound of Music locations: the film crew shot scenes there. The cemetery is one of Salzburg's two oldest still in use, with arcaded tombs and catacombs cut into the Mönchsberg.

Nonnberg Abbey, where Maria was a novice

Above the old town, just below Hohensalzburg Fortress, stands Nonnberg Abbey, a Benedictine convent where the real Maria lived as a novice. The Benedictine nuns still live and pray here, so the convent buildings stay closed; the church and the cemetery are the parts open to visitors.

Kajetanerplatz and the market scene

On Kajetanerplatz, Maria and the children shop at the market while "My Favorite Things" plays. A weekly farmers' market still sets up on the square.

Domplatz and the Cathedral Arches

Maria walks through the Cathedral Arches on her way from the abbey. The two arcades of pink marble on either side of the front of Salzburg Cathedral were built between 1658 and 1663 and close off Domplatz.

Residenzplatz and the fountain from "I Have Confidence"

During "I Have Confidence", Maria crosses Residenzplatz on her way to the von Trapp house and dips her hand into the Residenzbrunnen, the big fountain on the square.

The Mozartsteg footbridge

Maria and the children cross the Mozartsteg in the montage of their outings around Salzburg, set to "My Favorite Things". The footbridge opened in 1903 and charged a toll until 1921.

Mirabell Gardens and "Do-Re-Mi"

Among the Sound of Music locations in town, the Mirabell Gardens are the setting for "Do-Re-Mi": Maria and the children dance around the Pegasus Fountain here and sing on the garden steps.

Just inside the garden gate, the Borghese fencers stand in two pairs, copies of an ancient statue whose poses Maria and the children imitate in "Do-Re-Mi". Behind them begins the hedge tunnel, an arbor walk under arched trellis on the west side of the garden that the children run through in the film.

The dwarfs of the Dwarf Garden, on an old bastion, have a brief appearance in "Do-Re-Mi". Carved from white Untersberg marble under Prince-Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun, they make up Europe's oldest dwarf garden.

The von Trapp House, the Gazebo and the Lake

Schloss Leopoldskron and its lake

Of the Sound of Music locations beyond the old town, Schloss Leopoldskron comes first: the lakeside scenes of the von Trapp home were shot on its grounds, at a palace on the edge of the city built as an 18th-century retreat. The terrace and the view across the Leopoldskroner Weiher are the ones from the film, with the Untersberg rising on the far side of the water. The palace is a hotel today, and the Original Sound of Music Tour shows it from the opposite shore of the lake.

If you want more than the view, the palace runs guided tours through rooms that are otherwise closed, and the bar in the Meierhof next door is open to visitors as well as house guests.

Frohnburg, the front of the house

The film's von Trapp villa has two faces. The front, where Maria arrives, belongs to Frohnburg, a palace on Hellbrunner Allee, the avenue that leads out to Hellbrunn. It's operated by the University Mozarteum and closed to the public, so you see it from the outside.

Hellbrunn and the gazebo

The glass gazebo where Liesl and Rolf sing "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", and where Maria and the Baron later sing "Something Good", first stood in the park at Leopoldskron. It was moved to the park of Hellbrunn Palace to protect it from the growing crowds of visitors.

Next to the gazebo, the restored buildings at the park entrance now hold Sound of Music Salzburg, a museum of the Salzburg Museum about the film and the real von Trapp family. It's a seasonal museum: it closes for the winter and reopens in spring.

Sound of Music Locations Outside the City

The wedding church in Mondsee

The wedding of Maria and the Baron was filmed in the Basilica of St. Michael in Mondsee, a lakeside town in Upper Austria about half an hour from Salzburg. The church stands on the market square, with two towers outside and an early Baroque high altar up to 18 meters high inside.

The hills: Mehlweg, Werfen and the Untersberg

The meadow from the opening scene, where Julie Andrews sings "The hills are alive", isn't in Austria at all. It lies on the Mehlweg above Marktschellenberg in Bavaria, just over the border, with the Untersberg behind it, and it's private farmland. The "Do-Re-Mi" picnic was filmed near Werfen, south of Salzburg in the Salzach valley. The Untersberg itself is easy to find again: it's the mountain you see across the lake from Leopoldskron.

The Sound of Music Indoors and on Tour

The von Trapps also take the stage at the Salzburger Marionettentheater. The Sound of Music is part of its program: the Broadway musical, sung in English with summaries in several languages beside the stage, performed by marionettes on strings from above. The puppet show in the film's "Lonely Goatherd" scene is itself a nod to Salzburg's long marionette tradition.

The bus tours to the Sound of Music locations outside town include the Original Sound of Music Tour, which runs all year round.

Practical Tips

In town or outside: the Sound of Music locations in town, Mirabell Gardens, Residenzplatz and Nonnberg, lie in and around the old town. Frohnburg and Hellbrunn lie on the southern edge of the city, Leopoldskron on its western side, Mondsee and the hills further out. The ones in town are linked on our Sound of Music Walking Tour.

Indoors: when the weather closes in, the marionette theater tells the whole story on stage, songs included.