Our second day in Salzburg was spent at Hellbrunn Palace. Located just south of Salzburg the Palace was built by Prince Archbishop Markus Sittikus in the 17th century as a place to entertain his guests. With an interesting palace accompanied with an audio guide, a fascinatingly interactive complex of “trick fountains”, extensive grounds and a Folklore Museum in Monatschlossl (Little Month Palace) there is easily a day's worth of activities here.
We started with the audio guide of the Palace. Many of the rooms are highlighted with murals covering walls and ceilings along with nice views of the courtyard, gardens and fountains from the second floor.
Charlotte's favorite room however, was the mythical creatures display where fairytale creatures were painted on walls and a few “ancient beasts” such as a “unicorn” were preserved!
Throughout the guided tour of the palace the narrator makes it abundantly clear that Prince Archbishop Sittikus wanted his guests to relax, have fun and open themselves up to pondering the mysteries of the world. To help him accomplish this he installed a vast series of “trick fountains” throughout the grounds to entertain and “liven up” his events. He would often host dinners outdoors at this large table...
...and at some point in the evening when the night was particularly warm or the conversation was beginning to stagnate he would give a signal to the staff and they would open a series of valves that would spray water from nozzles hidden in the ground, table and even chairs of his unwitting guests. Fortunately, this trick still works on small children!
Although apparently not mine 🙁
 |
| Not a fan of this, Dad. Not. A. Fan. |
After the outside dinner area the tour takes you past dozens of additional fountains as well as through several of grotto’s where staff members stand at the ready to open additional valves if guests linger to long in a particular spot or are placidly strolling the pathways assuming that the dangers have past.
 |
| It took us longer than we care to admit to figure out what the fountains looked like when they weren't on. So well hidden!! |
In addition to the trick fountains there also many water powered automats that depict scenes of everyday life from the 16th century.
Along with some that are a bit more…fanciful...
When we were finished with the fountains we strolled through the gardens for a bit before enjoying a pleasant lunch in one of the garden cafes |
| The astute among you will note that there has been a wardrobe change from earlier in this post. One of didn't see the holes in the ground quite quick enough. |
We finished our day at Hellbrunner with a hike up to Monatschlossl and the Folklore Museum. Supposedly built in just one month to function as a hunting cabin for Archbishop Sitticus, the multi-story building had a number of items representing various objects from different folklore traditions including death masks, religious and ethnic icons and even a room of mirrors. Yet coming back down the hill was perhaps the most entertaining part of Amanda’s visit to this exhibit.
P.S. Unexpected discovery from our visit to Hellbrunn was the Gazebo where Liesl and Rolf sing and dance together during the storm in “The Sound of Music”. It, however, was locked up, so no recreations for anyone to endure.
