Event: Austria - Salzburg

Salzburg Residenz

When:	Daily
Where:	Salzburg Residenz
Costs:	€8.20; concessions €6.20; 6-14 yrs €2.60; under 6s free
Opening Hours:	Daily 9am-5pm

Salzburg Residenz, a fine Baroque palace in the Old Town, is the historic home of the city's ruling prince-bishops. The magnificent State Rooms and the Gallery, home to works by Rembrandt and Rubens, are open to the public.

The Residenz (Residence) is built around three courtyards and comprises some 180 rooms where the prince archbishops of Salzburg held court and controlled the region until the city was absorbed into the Hapsburg Empire in the early 19th century.

Still used for official receptions, the visitor today ascends the main staircase to reach the Carabinierisaal, a reception hall built around 1600. The adjoining State Rooms, decorated with vast ceiling frescoes, were redesigned at the beginning of the 18th century.

The gallery features masterpieces by Rembrandt, Rubens, Brueghel and others including Italian, French and Austrian painters. Also worth seeing are the views of Salzburg by Thomas Ender and Friedrich Loos.

In Mozart's day, his father was director of the cathedral orchestra and the young prodigy spent many hours performing in the Residenz's Rittersaal. Mozart's first court concert (at the age of six) took place in the Ratszimmer, another of the palace's great halls. The most magnificent of them all, however, is the Antecamera, or Audience Hall, which symbolises the power and magnitude of the ecclesiastical and secular principality of Salzburg.

Other rooms to visit include the Writing Room and Privy Room, the Bedroom, Throne Room and White Hall.