Salzburg gets three new cultural reasons to look beyond Mozart

Salzburg is Mozart. Mozart is Salzburg. The genius musician is intrinsically linked to his hometown. Over the decades, Mozart has largely contributed to build up the image of the city in tourists’ minds. From the visit of Mozart’s place of birth to concerts or to chocolate delicacies carrying the name -and the portrait- of the musician, Mozart is present everywhere in Salzburg. In 2025, Both Mozart birth house and residence welcomed some 560,000 visitors…

Salzburg is indeed one of Austria’s most popular destinations. The city recorded 1,662,519 foreign tourist arrivals in 2025, compared with 1,592,183 in 2024. This represented an increase of 4.42%. By including 459,697 domestic travellers, Salzburg recorded last year a total of over 2.12 million arrivals.

However, Salzburg is more than just a Mozart’s evocation. The city is indeed expanding its cultural offer by unveiling new museums contributing to reshaping its image.

A new UNESCO World Heritage Centre has opened in the Mirabell Gardens, a dedicated Sound of Music museum is due to welcome visitors at Hellbrunn this fall, and a major expansion of the Salzburg Museum will bring the prestigious Belvedere gallery to the city from 2027.

The developments come as Salzburg continues to build on its status as one of Austria’s leading cultural tourism destinations. They also add new experiences to a city whose compact historic centre is already a major draw for international visitors.

UNESCO heritage gets a new home
The first new attraction is the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. It opened at the end of June 2026 in the historic Orangerie in the south-eastern section of the Mirabell Gardens.

Salzburg’s historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, recognized for its exceptional architecture, its importance as a European music centre and its connection with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The new centre is designed to interpret that heritage rather than simply provide tourist information.

According to Martin Hochleitner, director of the World Heritage Centre, its role is focused on communication and education, with children and young people an important target audience.

The centre offers a different starting point for discovering Salzburg, putting the city’s architecture, history and UNESCO status into context before letting travellers exploring the Old Town.

The Orangerie also provides a new home for the Salzburg Panorama by Johann Michael Sattler. The enormous oil painting, more than 25 meter long and almost 4.88 meter high, shows Salzburg as it appeared in 1825, viewed from Hohensalzburg Fortress. It has been Salzburg first tourism marketing campaign as Sattler presented its panorama picture all across Europe.

‘Sound of Music’ has now its own museum
The city is also doubling down on one of its most powerful international tourism brands: The Sound of Music.

The 1964 Hollywood musical starring Julie Andrews was filmed extensively in and around Salzburg and continues to attract visitors from around the world. Existing tourism experiences already include circuits of filming locations, visits to Mirabell Gardens, cycling and walking tours, horse-drawn carriage rides and themed culinary and performance experiences.

Now the movie is getting a permanent museum.

The Sound of Music Salzburg Museum opened to the public on September 20, 2026 within the compound of Hellbrunn castle. A group of historic buildings at the entrance to Hellbrunn Park — including the former coach house, forester’s house and animal keeper’s house — were renovated for the project.

The exhibition, called “Sound of Music Salzburg,” will look not only at the Hollywood film as a cultural and tourist phenomenon, but will also reflect on the real history of the von Trapp family. The nearby gazebo, an original filming location and well-known landmark, will act as the final highlight of the museum tour. The Sound of Music is an enduring icon of Salzburg.

Every year, over 350,000 fans come to Salzburg to follow in the footsteps of the von Trapp family. The museum will close its doors from November 1 and will reopen on March 28, 2027.

Meanwhile, while visiting the Sound of Music exhibition, visitors should experience Hellbrunn castle. Built for the Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus around 1615 to combat his neurasthenia and his depressive state, the late-renaissance castle is surrounded by water fountains, grottoes, and treacherous spray fountains in its gardens that generate smiles and wet clothes!

Hellbrunn20castleHellbrunn Castle welcomes since September 20, 2026 the new museum dedicated to the movie “The Sound of Music”

Belvedere brings world-class art collection to Salzburg
However, the biggest project on Salzburg museums stage is still to come. In the heart of the Old Town, next to the cathedral, the Salzburg Museum at the Neue Residenz is undergoing a major renovation and expansion. The permanent collection about Salzburg history and arts will be presented in expanded premises and will be complemented by Belvedere Salzburg, a new branch of the Austrian Gallery Belvedere, equivalent to a National Gallery.

From 2027, this new branch of the Austrian Gallery Belvedere will showcase highlights from its collection, presenting 800 years of art history alongside selected works and themes connected to Salzburg.

The project will create an unusual partnership between two independent museums with exhibitions and cultural programs exchanges.

The redevelopment is also creating a new public space in the Old Town. A landscaped courtyard with an open atrium, greenery and a distinctive “light well” will form part of the new museum complex, while new pedestrian connections will link the nearby Residenz, Mozartplatz and Kaigasse.

Salzburg is then not simply adding individual attractions; it is broadening the reasons for visitors to spend more time in the city and for repeat visitors to come back, stimulating tourism to the city. And Mozart will still be present!