Salzburg Celebrates the Sound of Music

The newly opened Sound of Music Museum in Salzburg provides another compelling reason to visit the Austrian city made famous by the acclaimed Hollywood film. David Bowden sings along.

For decades, tourists have travelled to Salzburg to experience the magic of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was born there in 1756.

However, a different kind of music arrived in 1964, when the cast and crew of The Sound of Music came to the city to shoot the film based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical and the book by Maria von Trapp. Her memoirs, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, published in 1949, give a true account of her life, first as nanny to the children of Georg Ritter von Trapp and later as his wife. Their escape from pre-war Austria and eventual relocation to Stowe, Vermont, inspired two German films (Die Trapp-Familie, 1956, and its sequel Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika, 1958), and then the Oscar-winning Hollywood blockbuster The Sound of Music.

The stage show was adapted for the screen in 1965, starring Julie Andrews as Maria and Christopher Plummer as the Captain. It won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Robert Wise.

Residents of Salzburg were initially slow to embrace the Hollywood version, finding it difficult to accept a dramatised interpretation of an era they preferred to leave behind.

That changed when tourists, predominantly from the West, began flocking to Salzburg to see the locations that had captured their imagination. Enterprising locals soon began showing eager visitors the picturesque settings where many scenes were filmed.

Today, many tours operate to showcase the various locations featured in the film. Visitors can choose a bus tour, a cycling tour, or a private charter lasting several hours or even several days for die-hard fans.

One of the most famous scenes was filmed in the gazebo in the expansive grounds of Hellbrunn Palace on the outskirts of the city. It is in the former Hunting Lodge, Zookeeper's Lodge, and Coach House at the entrance to the palace that the Sound of Music Museum's collection is now housed.

The Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg is one of many stops on a The Sound of Music Tour

The exhibition features 477 artefacts and items of memorabilia, including props from the film, recordings, photographs, film posters and stage productions by the Marionette Theatre and the State Theatre. Sound and visuals from the original recording featuring Maria von Trapp, and footage from the Hollywood film, offer invaluable insights into the making of a global cultural phenomenon.

At the heart of Sound of Music Salzburg are two stories that are inextricably linked yet not identical: the real-life story of the von Trapp family and the global Hollywood myth that is The Sound of Music.

The stories unfold over two levels, with the von Trapp family’s history on the upper floor and the Hollywood version on the lower floor. It took the Salzburg Museum ten years to complete the project, from conception to its official opening on 26 September 2026.

Several of the child actors attended the opening ceremony, as did Maria von Trapp’s granddaughter, Kristina. Kristina also played a pivotal role in developing the von Trapp Family Mini Museum on the Zwölferhorn above St Gilgen. Julie Andrews sent a letter from New York wishing the museum the success that it deserves.

Few Hollywood films have shaped the worldwide image of Salzburg as powerfully as The Sound of Music. Since its premiere on 2 March 1965, it has been one of the most successful musical films of all time: a worldwide hit with over one billion admirers, five Oscars including Best Picture, and an unbroken run of success on television, streaming platforms, in-flight entertainment and musical theatre stages. That it continues to enthral generations of cinemagoers amazes most observers.

The opening of the Sound of Music Museum will ensure that interest in the film, and in Salzburg, continues for many decades to come. The museum closes for winter on 1 November and reopens at the beginning of March 2027.

Contact: www.soundofmusicsalzburg.at