Salzburg holds 155,416 residents within city limits and 614,000 across the metropolitan area, making it Austria's fourth-largest city by municipal population. The Salzach River divides the old town on the left bank from the newer districts on the right, with the city sitting at 424 meters elevation where the river exits the Alps into the Alpine foothills. The name derives from salt barges that traveled this river for over a millennium—Salzburg translates directly to "salt fortress." The prince-archbishops who ruled Salzburg as an independent ecclesiastical state from 798 until 1803 accumulated wealth through monopoly control of salt mining in the nearby mountains, particularly the Dürrnberg deposits worked since pre-Roman times. This concentration of capital funded the Baroque reconstruction that defines the cityscape visible today.
The Altstadt occupies 236 hectares on the left bank beneath the Mönchsberg cliff, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 under criteria stating it represents "an outstanding example of a European ecclesiastical city-state" with architecture preserving "extraordinary continuity" from the Middle Ages through the 18th century. Getreidegasse, the main commercial street measuring 300 meters long and sometimes narrowing to 3 meters wide, contains guild houses dating from the 15th century with wrought-iron shop signs extending perpendicular from facades as required by municipal law since 1654—the practice ensuring illiterate customers could identify businesses. Number 9 Getreidegasse is the birth house of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, where he lived from his birth on January 27, 1756, until the family moved to a larger residence across the river in 1773. The building now operates as a museum displaying his childhood violin, portraits, and letters, though only the third-floor apartment housed the Mozart family—the rest of the structure served other tenants. The museum recorded 350,000 visitors in 2019.
Festung Hohensalzburg dominates the city from the Festungsberg summit 506 meters above sea level, making it the largest fully preserved castle in Central Europe with 30,000 square meters of interior space across buildings constructed between 1077 and 1681. Archbishop Gebhard commissioned the initial fortification in 1077 during the Investiture Controversy—a conflict between Pope Gregory VII and Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV over who held authority to appoint bishops. The fortress never fell to siege despite multiple attempts during the Peasants' War of 1525 and the Thirty Years' War. The Fürstenzimmer state rooms date from 1501-1502, featuring Gothic woodwork and a late-Gothic ceramic stove standing 4 meters tall with hand-painted tiles. The Reckturm tower houses a pipe organ from 1502 called the Salzburger Stier—the "Salzburg Bull"—played mechanically three times daily at 7:00, 11:00, and 18:00 since its installation. The Festungsbahn funicular railway, built in 1892 and rebuilt in 2011, climbs 99 meters over a 198-meter track length in 54 seconds, transporting approximately one million passengers annually.
Salzburg Cathedral stands where three previous churches occupied the same site since 774, with the current Baroque structure completed in 1628 to designs by Santino Solari. The cathedral measures 101 meters in length with a dome reaching 79 meters high and 71 meters wide at the crossing, creating interior space for 10,000 people. The bronze baptismal font from 1321 is where Mozart received baptism one day after his birth, documented in the cathedral register as "Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart." Three bronze doors installed in 1958 represent Faith, Hope, and Charity. The organ contains 4,000 pipes across 56 registers. The cathedral's four-ton bell called the Salvator, cast in 1961, replaced a predecessor destroyed during Allied bombing on October 16, 1944—the same raid that damaged the cathedral dome, which underwent restoration until 1959.
St. Peter's Abbey claims foundation in 696 by Saint Rupert, making it the oldest continuously operating monastery in the German-speaking world. The current abbey church, consecrated in 1143 and remodeled in Rococo style during the 1770s, contains the marble tomb of Saint Rupert behind the high altar. The Stiftskulinarium restaurant within the abbey complex asserts operation since 803 based on a document mentioning wine distribution to monastery guests, though continuous restaurant operation only has documentation from 1621. The Petersfriedhof cemetery adjacent to the church contains catacombs carved into the Mönchsberg cliff face—early Christian chambers from the 4th or 5th century, though dating remains uncertain. The cemetery holds approximately 600 graves including the Mozart family tomb, though Wolfgang himself lies in an unmarked mass grave in Vienna's St. Marx Cemetery. The cliff-face chapel of St. Maximus sits within the catacombs, accessible by steep stairs.
The Mirabell Palace and Gardens occupy land where Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau built Schloss Altenau in 1606 for his mistress Salome Alt, with whom he had fifteen children despite his clerical vows—a relationship that contributed to his imprisonment by his successor in 1612 and death in Festung Hohensalzburg five years later. Fire destroyed the original palace in 1818, with the current structure rebuilt in simplified form by 1825. The Baroque gardens survive from redesign in 1690 by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, covering 3.6 hectares with geometric parterre beds, marble statues representing classical mythology, and the Pegasus Fountain as centerpiece. The Marmorsaal—Marble Hall—on the palace's second floor serves as a concert venue and wedding location, hosting approximately 200 marriages annually. The palace gardens appeared in the 1965 film "The Sound of Music" during the "Do-Re-Mi" sequence, filmed on location in Salzburg over eleven weeks in spring 1964.
The Salzburg Festival operates for five weeks each summer from late July through August, founded in 1920 by poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, composer Richard Strauss, director Max Reinhardt, and designer Alfred Roller. The 2019 festival presented 199 performances across 43 productions to 263,000 ticketed attendees, generating approximately 185 million euros in regional economic impact according to festival commission data. Hofmannsthal's morality play "Jedermann" ("Everyman") performs on the Domplatz in front of the cathedral every festival year since 1920 except for interruptions during World War II and pandemic closures—the 2024 production marked the 104th staging. The Grosses Festspielhaus concert hall, opened in 1960, seats 2,179 with a stage 100 meters wide. The Haus für Mozart, rebuilt from the original Kleines Festspielhaus in 2006, seats 1,580. Ticket prices range from 25 to 480 euros depending on performance and seat location.
The Salzburg Museum occupies the Neue Residenz building on Mozartplatz, displaying city history across 3,000 square meters of exhibition space. Collections include the 1564 city model showing Salzburg before Baroque rebuilding, Roman artifacts from Juvavum—the Roman settlement on this site from 15 BC onward—and the original Rupertus Cross from the 8th century measuring 44 centimeters tall with garnets set in gold. The art collection contains works by Flemish and Dutch masters acquired by Prince-Archbishops, including paintings by Rembrandt and Rubens. The Celtic Museum in nearby Hallein, 15 kilometers south of Salzburg, displays finds from the Dürrnberg salt mines including preserved leather clothing and wooden tools from miners who worked these deposits during the La Tène period between 450 BC and 15 BC. Salt preserved organic materials that normally decompose, providing exceptional detail about pre-Roman life in this region.