Mirabellgarten

The Mirabellgarten lies in Salzburg’s Right Old Town beside Schloss Mirabell. This Baroque pleasure garden, laid out from 1687 under Fürsterzbischof Johann Ernst von Thun, was designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and later refined by Franz Anton Danreiter. The whole ensemble, including pavilions and garden monuments, is protected and part of the city’s UNESCO World Heritage site. Its fame rests on the sculpted programme of twenty-eight gods and heroes arranged across terraces and groves. Four marble couples around the Great Parterre fountain represent the elements, each carved by Ottavio Mosto about 1690. Along the Linden Grove stand sixteen antique deities—eight male, eight female—symbolising the seasons and the fleeting nature of life. Copies of the Borghesischer Fechter guard the approaches, while the Zwerglgarten below holds twenty-eight dwarf figures. Visitors walk a straight gravel alley framed by balustrades and statues to the central fountain. Linden shade gives way to the Theatre Garden’s clipped hedges, and the Bastion Garden drops to the Water Bastion with its Dwarf Garden. The Orangerie shelters roses, and beyond the northern edge the Kurgarten lawns slope toward the old city wall. From the upper terrace the view takes in the Hohensalzburg Fortress and the Salzach valley.