Hellbrunn Palace on the southern outskirts of Salzburg is one of the TOP 10 sights in the city of Mozart. On a sunny Sunday afternoon in mid-August, Christoph and Andreas from Vienna and Selina and Lisa from Salzburg were out and about with gaysalzburg.at on the extensive grounds of Hellbrunn.

Hellbrunn Palace was built between 1613 and 1615 by Prince Archbishop Markus Sittikus as a mannerist summer residence – a Villa Suburbana modelled on Italian examples. Markus Sittikus lived in the Residenz in the city of Salzburg.

In his time, he not only continued the planning of the new Salzburg Cathedral, but also built Hellbrunn Palace with its extensive park landscape (approx. 60 hectares) just outside the city gates.

Enough work for eight gardeners

Here there are, among other things, extensive meadows, mannerist ornamental gardens, a Kneipp facility, the dahlia garden and ponds in which really big sturgeon and carp swim. A majestic complex. Today, the extensive castle park is tended all year round by eight full-time gardeners. You can see that – there is a lot of work. Work that makes the park an experience.

The trick fountains at Hellbrunn Palace are the best-preserved examples of their kind from the late Renaissance period. They include a series of grottoes, cellars, statues and ponds, with numerous moving figures and sculpturally decorated testimonies to the past.

Everything works with water power. The trick fountains are an ingenious system of pipes and nozzles – it’s amazing what water power can move. Depending on where you are standing, you may get wet. In summer, as during our walk around Hellbrunn Palace, it was very refreshing.

The Roman Theatre (Theatron) frames the Prince’s Table. Markus Sittikus often received guests at the princely table. When he thought enough was enough, the water jets fixed in the seats were activated. Then every guest knew the party was over, because it got wet from below. Only the prince’s throne remained dry. One may imagine today what delicate situations took place there about 400 years before our time.

The castle was an appropriate place for Markus Sittikus to while away the summer months in all manner of debauchery. It was in this summer residence that the archbishop received guests, playing all manner of pranks on them.

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He invited people to hunt in the palace park and surprised guests with splashes in the water features. As prince-archbishop, Markus Sittikus was also a man of the world and a formative personality for Salzburg – in political, cultural and spiritual terms.

An afternoon at Hellbrunn Palace – traces from 400 years ago

Today, the traces of this can be seen in many ways in the castle. The interactive permanent exhibition “SchauLust – The Unexpected World of Markus Sittikus”, the multimedia installation on the carnival of 1618 or the music room with an oversized bow containing the music material of the opera L’Orfeo by Monteverdi are just as much witnesses of the times as the interactive revolving sofa, the replica of a historical globe from 1613, the room of transience and the larger-than-life unicorn. What awaits you is the unexpected. And the engagement with our history.

A visit to Hellbrunn Palace is an experience that broadens the horizon. The spacious grounds of the palace and park allow you to breathe a sigh of relief and get away from the sometimes very narrow-minded everyday life. Imagining how things might have been 400 years ago at Hellbrunn inspires the imagination. And leaves you with the feeling of having experienced a true holiday.

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Thanks to Christoph and Andreas from Vienna, Selina and Lisa from Salzburg, photographer Carina and Olga from the Hellbrunn Palace administration. An afternoon at Hellbrunn Palace that was simply fun!

Hellbrunn Palace. From the main station in 25 minutes by bus line 25.