The City of Salzburg

Lucie Skeaping takes a look at some of the composers who lived and worked in Salzburg, before it became the Mozartean shrine we know it as today! The city itself is the fourth largest in modern-day Austria, and sits neatly on the banks of the river Salzach, at the northern boundary of the Alps. The name Salzburg - literally "Salt Castle" - comes from the salt mines in the area that helped start the regeneration of the city in the 7th century. It was a holy man - Saint Rupert - who saw its potential - and founded the city on what was the ruined Roman settlement of Iuvavum. A hundred or so years later, barges carrying salt along the river, were subject to a toll, and as a result, the city began to flourish. Rupert was also the founder of Christianity in the region, and the cathedral which was begun there during his lifetime, now bears both his name, and his relics - although there has been a lot of building and rebuilding over the 13-hundred or so years since his demise! In the 17th & 18th centuries, Salzburg was also an important seat in the Holy Roman Empire, and for a time was even an independent state within it. The cathedral and its surroundings naturally attracted all sorts of people, including craftsmen, artists and musicians such as Heinrich Finck, Paul Hofhaimer, Johann Stadlmayr, Abraham Megerle, Heinrich Biber, Georg Muffat, Michael Haydn and Leopold Mozart.