Hellbrunn Palace and trick fountains near Salzburg

Hellbrunn Palace and trick fountains near Salzburg

Hellbrunn – Salzburg’s green living room

A palace from the late Renaissance, magnificent gardens and the amusing trick fountains. Hellbrunn is still a magical place today and offers sensory delights for all ages…

Salzburg’s pleasure garden

In Hellbrunn near Salzburg, life has always been taken lightly. The archiepiscopal pleasure resort from the early 17th century was intended to help against the then fashionable illness of melancholy. The form of therapy: distraction. The active principle: surprise. The castle is actually a villa suburbana, a place based on the Italian model that only welcomes guests during the day. Here, Regent Markus Sittikus and his guests sought a break from everyday government life with wine, music and entertainment. Similar to a modern amusement park, the Hellbrunn trick fountains display a firework display of historical water tricks with which the archbishop used to impress distinguished visitors: the wet element moves as fast as lightning like a snake or artfully forms a chain. It forms a curtain and even makes objects float. Aqua Viva – living spring water – was supposed to calm the mind and invigorate the senses back then. Tasks that a
modern spa would like to fulfill today.

Historical garden fashions

When Hellbrunn was built, Italy was the measure of all things. The garden trend of the time called for classical landscapes: walls from antiquity and small niches with stone figures. Later, France was seen as a model and people wanted mazes and boundary walls. Eventually, English parks became fashionable and the walls had to give way again. A plan drawn in 1803 reflects Hellbrunn’s situation at the time: it shows a park with deliberately irregularly designed paths. The trend was to return to nature. This interesting mixture of clear geometry and natural wildness can still be experienced in Hellbrunn today.

Antique automata

Hellbrunn is also a unique example of grotto art from around 1600, when grottoes were regarded as a gateway to the underworld and were dedicated to certain deities. Around 1750, the Mechanical Theater was built with around 150 hand-carved wooden figures and a water-powered organ. To this day, this water-powered machine continues to fascinate visitors from all over the world. With its contrasts of fright & fun, light & shadow and music & mechanics, this historic site provides timeless surprises: No other palace tour has as many laughs as Hellbrunn! Whether you are a garden fan, a palace lover or a lover of soul trees – Hellbrunn’s magic still works today and the historic complex is one of Salzburg’s most popular tourist attractions and can be reached from Berchtesgaden and Bad Reichenhall in just a few minutes.