MOZART IN
SALZURG
Birthplace and Residence Museums in Mozart’s Town
Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart is associated with many places, but Salzburg can be
called Mozart town
as much as any. The world’s most famous
composer (arguably) was born in a third floor room of a middle class
apartment in the heart of the city’s old town, one of seven children
(not all lived) born to Leopold Mozart and his wife Anna. Mozart’s
father Leopold was the Royal Chamber Musician who neglected his own career
for the sake of his surviving children, both his daughter Maria Anna “Nannerl” and
her 
younger
brother Wolfgang showed musical talent at a young age. Beginning in 1772,
Leopold took his prodigy son and daughter on an extensive tour
of Europe, returning only occasionally to their small apartment. In 1773
they moved to a larger house on Salzburg’s Market Square (then
Hannibal Square) where young Mozart began writing his compositions, a
flood of symphonies, serenades and concertos. Wolfgang Mozart eventually
found Salzburg too provincial and restrictive under the Prince Archbishop
and left his 
salaried
post as court organist to venture to Vienna to pursue a career as an
independent composer. He married Constanze Weber,
achieved his greatest artistic success while suffering financial disaster.
Mozart returned only occasionally to Salzburg, eventually dying in Vienna
and buried there in an unmarked paupers grave, his debts probably
mostly due to his penchant for gambling. There are two principal museum
sites
to visit in Salzburg associated with the great composer and his family.
Mozart’s Birthplace
The birthplace
house (Mozarts Geburtshaus) at Getreidegasse Nr. 9 where the Mozart
family
lived from 1747 to 1773, asks the interesting question
of what a museum should be. The building was a typical Salzburg townhouse
called the "Hagenauer House" owned by Leopold Mozart's friend
Johann Hagenaur, a grocer and merchant. The actual apartment consisted
of a kitchen, a small chamber, a living room, a bedroom and study. 
The
rooms were first made into a museum in 1880. The museum has been expanded
to take in a neighbor’s rooms on the same floor and downstairs.
A few years ago, the keepers of Mozart’s legacy in Salzburg the
Mozarteum Foundation apparently felt a museum with some artifacts was
just a bit boring and hired an American artist, Robert Wilson to create
an exhibit in the walk up apartment where the Mozarts lived. He created
some interesting and clever representations of Mozart’s creativity
and a bit of his whimsical sense of humor, 
but apparently a little obtuse
for some visitors. The birth house has recently been redesigned again
as more of a typical museum, with papers and paintings of the Mozart
family - and a lock of Mozart's hair - but Wilson’s exhibits
are still there. Particularly curious and fun are the Mechanical Theater
in the
music
room - push the
button
by the door and a figure representing Leopold Mozart shoots a dog on
the piano, an odd sort of house training - 
and the Salzburg Upside Down
room takes a moment to figure out – a relief map of Salzburg on
the ceiling and the stars on the floor. The Secrets Room represents waiting
for the great musician who will never return. On the wall of the building
next door in the courtyard is a cool blue neon sign with a phrase young
Mozart reportedly said that expresses his particular view on life and
explains as much about him as any thing else, “Madame Mutter! Ich
esse gerne Butter.” (Dear Mother! I like to eat butter).
Mozart Residence
The
Mozarts moved to a larger house, taking the rooms of a former dancing
master
who
had died. The original residence house (Wohnungshaus) where
the Mozarts lived from 1773 to 1780 on the Market Square - Market Platz
8, across from the Bristol Hotel was mostly destroyed by a bomb dropped
in 1944 during WWII. The building replacing it was torn down and has
been reconstructed in according to the old building plans to represent
what it was at the time Mozart composed several of his early works. The
exhibits on display change from time to time, with some original letters
and composition pages to be viewed as well as several instruments on
display including Mozart's favorite, the Forte Piano.
The two Mozart Museum houses can be visited with a combined ticket for €12 for adults (€ 7 individually) and € 3.50 for children 6-14 and € 4.50 for students 15-18 years. A family ticket is available and admission is free for one time with a Salzburg Card.
Monuments
Requiring
no admission is the Mozart monument statue by Ludwig Schwanthaler in
the center
of Mozart Square across from the house at Number 8 where
Wolfgang Mozart’s widow, Constanze (who had later married a Danish
diplomat Georg von Nissen) died six months before the statue was erected
in 1842. In the square in front of the residence is a modern sculpture
in which 
one
is supposed to see different faces depending on the angle, though looks
rather like Mozart kissing a walnut. And though Wolfgang
Mozart’s burial pit outside Vienna is lost to history (see Mozart's
Death Mystery Vienna), in the fascinating
Saint Sebastian’s Church cemetery can be found the gravestones
of Constanze and Leopold Mozart, with the notation of Kapellmeister,
a monument to the showbiz stage father whose death in 1787 haunted his
son enough to represent him as a spectre in his “Don Giovanni”.
And don't forget the Mozart Chocolates. © Bargain
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SEE ALSO:
MOZART DINNER CONCERT SALZBURG
HELLBRUNN
PALACE - TRICK FOUNTAINS
SALZBURG
MARIONETTES THEATER
VIENNA
MOZART ORCHESTRA CONCERTS
MOZARTHAUS - LEOPOLD MOZART IN AUGSBURG
