Walk of Modern Art
The Walk of Modern Art is a self-guided trail of 15 permanent public sculptures installed across Salzburg by the Salzburg Foundation since 2002.
Trip Plan
The Walk of Modern Art, Stop by Stop
I don’t like modern art. I walked and cycled past these artworks for years on my tours, and they grew on me, not for the art’s sake but because they have become part of Salzburg. The Salzburg Foundation started putting them in public places in 2002, to bring the art to people instead of people to a museum.
This is my order, and it is as much a tour of the old town as a tour of the art: the main bridge, Makartplatz, the Mönchsberg, the university quarter, the cathedral squares and the river. Each work has a red sign beside it that explains it. The only thing to decide is the Mönchsberg: the lift costs a few euros, and walking up from Mülln is free.
Ordered route
13 stops, in walking order
The sequence and every stop note are preserved exactly as authored. Hover a stop to see it on the map; click a marker for the details.
- Start
Spirit of Mozart
Where every free walking tour in Salzburg starts, so this walk does too. I don't love the chairs, and they are usually too covered in bird droppings to sit on, but the view of the river, the fortress and the city mountain from here is the best start there is.
- Public Art
Beyond Recall
The four glass cubes with neon writing, one on each corner of the main bridge. Forced labourers rebuilt this bridge under the Nazis, and many died; nobody mentioned it when it reopened in 1949, until Brigitte Kowanz put these here in 2011.
- Public Art
Caldera
Cross towards Linzergasse and turn left after the first building onto Makartplatz. Some see Mozart's wig in Tony Cragg's five-metre bronze, some see two people kissing. I think it's a tooth.
- Public Art
Homage to Mozart
Over the Makartsteg and downstream to the white church. Someone tarred and feathered Markus Lüpertz's naked Mozart after it went up, and the cleaning took its paint off, which is why it is grey.
- Public Art
Sky Space
Follow Gstättengasse to the lift inside the mountain, or walk up from Mülln for free. Leave the museum to the right: James Turrell's stone cylinder has a hole in the roof, and by day you can walk in and sit under the sky.
- Public Art
Ziffern im Wald
Past the front of the museum and up two sets of stairs. Mario Merz's igloo of iron pipes and Fibonacci numbers in neon was his last work. Not a must.
- Public Art
Gurken
Down to Furtwänglerpark, the only public green on the left bank. Every pickle is different and you still recognise every one as a pickle, which is about all Erwin Wurm has said about them.
- Public Art
AEIOU
Less than a minute from the pickles, behind the University Church: Anselm Kiefer's white pavilion, the first work the Foundation commissioned, in 2002. I haven't bothered to interpret it yet, and they still pay a guard to protect it.
- Public Art
Awilda
Towards the cathedral, then left before the Franciscan church. Jaume Plensa's five-metre marble head is a girl from the Dominican Republic he met in Barcelona. Go into the Franciscan church next door while you are here.
- Public Art
Vanitas
In the cathedral crypt, in the room on the left at the bottom of the stairs: Christian Boltanski's sheet-metal devils throw shadows while a voice counts the time. I'm still not sure what I think of it in a crypt.
- Public Art
Sphaera
One square on, under the fortress. Get the fortress, the golden ball and yourself in one photo. The man's smaller twin, a woman, hides above the garage entrance in Toscaninihof.
- Public Art
Die Sprache der Vögel
In the courtyard of the Chiemseehof, the state government, entered beside the 220 Grad café, one of the best cafés in town. Kiefer again: eagle's wings growing out of a stack of books. You only get in while the offices are open.
- Public Art
Connection
Down from Mozartplatz to the river by the Mozartsteg: Manfred Wakolbinger's eleven-metre steel wave, and the last stop. Walk through it and watch the outside turn up on the inside.
Editorial connections
Explicitly related
These links come only from this collection entity's authored related field.
Ready when you are
Walk it yourself, or walk it with me
Every stop above links to its full guide, so the route works without me. If you would rather have the stories told out loud, the daily free walking tour covers the heart of it.
