Housed in the baroque Neue Residenz palace, this flagship museum takes you on a fascinating romp through Salzburg past and present. Ornate rooms showcase everything from Roman excavations to prince-archbishop portraits. There are free guided tours at 6pm every Thursday.
A visit starts beneath the courtyard in the strikingly illuminated Kunsthalle , presenting rotating exhibitions of art.
Upstairs, prince-archbishops glower down from the walls at Mythos Salzburg , which celebrates the city as a source of artistic and poetic inspiration. Showstoppers include Carl Spitzweg’s renowned Sonntagsspaziergang (Sunday Stroll; 1841) painting, the portrait-lined prince-archbishop’s room and the Ständesaal (Sovereign Chamber), an opulent vision of polychrome stucco curling around frescoes depicting the history of Rome according to Titus Livius. The early 16th-century Milleflori tapestry, Archbishop Wolf Dietrich’s gold-embroidered pontifical shoe and Flemish tapestries are among other attention-grabbers.
The Panorama Passage also provides some insight into Salzburg's past, with its Roman walls and potter's kiln and models of the city at different points in history.
Salzburg’s famous 35-bell glockenspiel, which chimes daily at 7am, 11am and 6pm, is on the western flank of the Neue Residenz.
