Salzburg

In the La Tène period the site was a centre of the Celtic Taurisci, and after the Roman conquest of 15 BC the town of Iuvavum grew up on the ground of today's old town, becoming a municipium in 45 AD. Around 696 Bishop Rupert received the ruins from Duke Theodo II of Bavaria and founded St. Peter's Abbey; Salzburg became a bishopric in 739 and an archbishopric in 798. Its name comes from the salt barges on the Salzach, and salt, trade and gold mining paid for its rise. Archbishop Gebhard began Hohensalzburg in 1077.

The archbishops ruled as princes of the Holy Roman Empire, independent of Bavaria from the late 14th century. In 1525 rebellious peasants besieged the archbishop in his fortress for three months. From the late 16th century Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Markus Sittikus and Paris Lodron rebuilt the centre with Italian architects. In 1731 Archbishop Firmian expelled the Protestants; over 20,000 were driven out in the persecutions, most of them resettling in East Prussia. Mozart served the court until his break with Archbishop Colloredo in 1781. The archbishopric was secularised in 1803, passed between Austria and Bavaria, and became Austrian for good in 1816.

The Anschluss of 1938 brought arrests, deportations and the destruction of the synagogue; a camp for Roma operated in Maxglan, and there were five subcamps of Dachau in the city. Allied bombing destroyed 46 per cent of its buildings, and a bomb crashed through the cathedral dome, but most of the Baroque centre survived. American troops arrived on 5 May 1945. The old town became a World Heritage Site in 1996.

Music defines the city. Mozart was born in the Getreidegasse in 1756 and worked for the archbishops until 1781, and his name is everywhere, from the Mozarteum university to the chocolates. On the 250th anniversary of his birth in 2006, all 35 of the city's churches rang their bells together. The Salzburg Festival, founded in 1920, fills the summer with opera, concerts and theatre, and Hofmannsthal's Jedermann is played every year; the Easter Festival founded by the Salzburg-born conductor Herbert von Karajan, a Whitsun festival and Mozart Week in January extend the season. The Marionette Theatre, founded in 1913, performs opera with puppets.

The city is also bound up with two famous songs. Joseph Mohr, a Salzburg-born priest, wrote the words of Silent Night, first sung in nearby Oberndorf on Christmas Eve 1818. And the Trapp family, who lived in Salzburg until they fled the Nazis, inspired The Sound of Music, filmed in and around the city in the 1960s; tour companies still visit its locations. Writers connected with the city include the poet Georg Trakl, born here, Stefan Zweig, who lived here for about 15 years until 1934, and Thomas Bernhard, who grew up here.

Catholic tradition shapes the calendar, from the September fair for St. Rupert, held since the 14th century, to the Advent market around the cathedral. In sport, FC Red Bull Salzburg, which plays at a stadium in suburban Wals-Siezenheim, has dominated Austrian football for more than a decade.

Salzburg had 157,994 inhabitants in 2026. It passed 100,000 around 1950, after absorbing neighbouring municipalities in 1935 and taking in many post-war refugees, and reached 150,000 in 2016. Large German, Bosnian, Serbian and Romanian communities live here, and the urban area spills across the border into Bavaria, where transport lines continue to Freilassing, Ainring and Piding.

Tourism is the most visible industry: at peak times visitors greatly outnumber residents, and the old town's shops and cafés depend on them. Salzburg is also a university city, with the University of Salzburg — around 18,000 students — the Paracelsus Medical University and the Mozarteum, and the city has Austria's second-largest airport. GDP per head is above the Austrian average.

Most residents live outside the historic core, in districts such as Lehen, Maxglan and Gnigl, and travel by trolleybus or bicycle. Life follows the seasons — summer evenings in beer gardens and on the riverbanks, winter weekends skiing in the mountains to the south — and housing costs in a city with limited room to grow are a frequent subject of debate.

Salzburg's best-known dish is a dessert. Salzburger Nockerl are fluffy dumplings resembling a soufflé, traditionally served as a dessert in the city. The Mozartkugel — pistachio, marzipan and nougat covered in dark chocolate — was created in 1890 by the confectioner Paul Fürst, whose descendants still make the original by hand, while many other makers produce versions industrially.

The street food is the Bosna, said to have been invented in Salzburg in 1949: a bratwurst with onions and a blend of mustard or tomato ketchup with curry powder, in white bread grilled briefly before serving. It is now eaten across western Austria and southern Bavaria. Sausage stands and small snack shops sell it around the old town.

Beer is the everyday drink. Stiegl, founded in the city in 1492, is the most common beer brand in Austria and brews light lager, wheat beer and other styles, with a beer museum on the city's edge. Augustiner Bräu in Mülln has brewed beer at the foot of the Mönchsberg since 1621, and its beer hall and garden are an institution. At the Christmas market the stalls sell hot potatoes, doughnuts and sweets alongside mulled drinks.