Salzburg was ruled by prince-archbishops for over 1,000 years — sovereign clerics who funded Baroque palaces with salt revenue, expelled 20,000 Protestants in 1731, and left a fortress no army ever took. Beneath the Mozart tourism lies a hard political history.
The oldest continuously operating convent north of the Alps, founded around 712 AD by St. Rupert for his niece Erentrudis. The Romanesque frescoes in the west gallery date to 1150. Church open daily 07:00-19:00 (winter to 17:00), free; nuns sing Gregorian chant at 06:45.
Graves in use since 700 AD, with rock-cut chapels carved into the Mönchsberg cliff that early Christians used from the 3rd century. Mozart's sister Nannerl and Michael Haydn lie here. Cemetery free; catacombs €2, open 10:00-17:00 (Oct-Apr 10:00-12:30, 13:00-17:00).
The prince-archbishops' state rooms and cathedral treasury reopened as one circuit in 2014, restoring a route sealed since 1803 secularisation. Includes the Kunst- und Wunderkammer of 1668. Adults €13, open Wed-Mon 10:00-17:00, closed Tuesdays outside summer.
The medieval market square where salt from the Dürrnberg mines was traded and taxed. The Hofapotheke at number 6 has traded since 1591 and keeps its original Rococo interior of 1903 with hand-labelled apothecary jars still in working use behind the counter.
Markus Sittikus von Hohenems built this pleasure villa in 1613-1619 with no bedrooms — it was strictly a day palace for staging power. The trick fountains still run on the original 400-year-old hydraulics, no pumps. Combined ticket €15.50, open Apr-Nov 09:00-17:30.
Salzburg's synagogue of 1901 was ransacked in November 1938; the community of roughly 240 was deported or fled. The rebuilt prayer house stands on the original site and brass Stolpersteine set into pavements across the Neustadt name individual victims at their last addresses.
The city's principal history museum in the archbishops' 1602 new palace, covering Roman Iuvavum, the salt economy, the 1731 Protestant expulsion and the 1938-1945 years including the Anschluss book-burning on Residenzplatz. Adults €11, Tue-Sun 09:00-17:00.
The eastern hill carries the surviving 17th-century town fortifications built against Bavarian and Swedish threat during the Thirty Years' War, plus Stefan Zweig's Paschinger Schlössl where the writer lived until fleeing Austria in 1934.
The salt seam that named the city and financed every palace in it. Celts mined here from 600 BC and the preserved bodies and tools are world-class; the mine tour uses wooden slides and an underground lake. €28, daily 09:00-17:00, 20 min by bus 170 from Salzburg.
The medieval trade road to Italy on the right bank, narrow enough that sunlight reaches the cobbles only at midday. House 9 has a 1200s core, house 31 was the birthplace of Joseph Mohr who wrote Silent Night in 1816, and the gutter channels remain visible.
The archbishops' court riding stables of 1607, cut into the Mönchsberg rock, converted into festival theatres from 1925. Guided tours show the Felsenreitschule with its 96 arcades quarried from living stone. Tours €7, usually 14:00 daily, times vary by rehearsal.
The Augustinian friars began brewing on the Mülln hill in 1621 and the beer hall still serves from wooden barrels tapped by hand into stone mugs. The parish church above holds a Gothic Madonna of 1450 that survived the Baroque rebuilding intact.