The music the Austrians identify with Salzburg flowed from the pen of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. For it was here, in a well-preserved building, 9 Getreidegasse, that the famed composer and musician was born in 1756. It is now a fascinating museum that houses numerous artifacts from Mozart’s day.

But the Mozart birthplace is only one attraction. The Hohensalzburg Fortress sits regally atop a hill overlooking the city, just as it has for the past 900 years.

Below its impregnable walls is a labyrinth of narrow streets flanked by spacious plazas, and on every plaza stands a church. For centuries, Salzburg was a principality ruled by Catholic bishops.

Salzburg is best enjoyed by walking to its famous sights—to its huge cathedral (or Dom) bordered on two sides by Residenzplaz and Kapitalplaz, to the Mirabell Palace and gardens on the north side of the Salzach River that splits the old city, or to Nonnburg Abbey where the real Maria von Trapp lived.