The miller at work - a water automaton in the Hellbrunn Water Gardens. Photo credit to Hellbrunn Website
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Hellbrunn
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When:
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20 Mar - 2 Nov 2008 (annual)
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Where:
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Hellbrunn
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| Costs: |
€8.50; students 16-26 yrs €6; 4-18 yrs €3.80
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| Opening Hours: |
Mar, Apr & Oct: 9am-4.30pm
May, Jun & Sep: 9am-5.30pm
Jul & Aug: 9am-10pm
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The Italianate palace of Hellbrunn is Salzburg's answer to Vienna's Schoenbrunn. Built as a summer palace between 1613-1619 by Italophile Archbishop von Hohenems, it has remained unchanged to this day.
Visitors can enjoy beautiful "trick" fountains and gardens, a mechanical toy theatre, Mascagni frescoes in the palace halls and the glass gazebo which famously featured as the backdrop for the song, I am 16 going on 17 in The Sound of Music.
The water gardens emulate Rome's Villa d'Este and feature a number of ingenious features. A large table with ten chairs, for instance, suddenly spurts water jets. Water and air power the sound of birdsong in the Birdsong Grotto and two other grottoes, Neptune and Mirror, have more water tricks in store. Jets even power the actions of three stone automata - a sharpener, a potter and a miller!
Even without the fountains, the elaborate herbaceous borders are a joy to behold and keep a team of gardeners very busy all summer. In high summer the gardens stay open until 10pm, so come for a stroll before a romantic dinner in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Salzburg's Old Town.
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