March walk from Helbrunn Palace to the city center of Salzburg
March is a wonderful month in Salzburg. The ski season is still going strong in the Alps, while the sun is shining in the city and the first flowers bloom. As someone who works in the tourism industry, it's time for me to get into the working mood. I just brought my minibus in for a technical check so that, hopefully, all my tours during the upcoming season will go smoothly without any breakdowns. Today, since I'm on foot, I decided to walk in the nearby Hellbrunn Park.
The palace and adjacent park were constructed in the early 17th century as a country villa with hunting grounds for the ruler of the Principality of Salzburg, Archbishop Markus Sitticus. The most remarkable feature of the palace is the trick fountains used by the archbishop to entertain and amaze his guests after drinking parties. The fountains and the museum inside the palace are open to visitors from April to the end of October, while the garden is open all year round. Additionally, there are other attractions worth seeing such as the stone theater and the zoo. If the weather is warm and sunny, visitors are advised to hike to Hellbrunn Hill to get a breathtaking view of the garden, Salzburg, and the Alps.
As a professional tour guide, I have a few favorite tours, and one of them is the tour of filming locations of the Trapp family movie. The Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg in 1964. Do you remember the scene where Rolf and Liesl sang "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" at the gazebo on their date? That gazebo is located in Hellbrunn Park. After the film's release in 1965, the gazebo was moved from the Leopoldskronn garden, where the actual shooting took place, to Hellbrunn Park to make it more accessible to fans. Nowadays, thousands of tourists from all over the world visit the pavilion every year to touch the original attributes of the legendary film.
