Schallmoos is the right-bank district north of Salzburg's Neustadt, built on former marshland and still carrying the functional, unpolished character of a neighbourhood that the tourist circuit barely reaches. The Rockhouse Salzburg lives here. Two baroque manor houses survived the drainage era. The main railway station is at its southern edge.
The Story
Schallmoos was swamp for most of Salzburg's history. The flat land on the right bank north of the old town held water poorly, and the area carried a reputation as unhealthy and peripheral. It was the Prince-Archbishop Paris Lodron who ordered the first serious drainage works, straightening the Saalach's meanders and beginning the conversion of bog into farmland that eventually made the district inhabitable.
The most visible relics of the period when Schallmoos briefly became a place worth living in are the two Baroque manor houses that survived: the Robinighof on Robinigstrasse, its high facade carrying a Volutengiebel and a relief medallion of Saint Josef, and the Rauchenbichlerhof near the Linzer Bundesstrasse, built from Kapuzinerberg quarry stone. Both are private and cannot be entered, but both are visible from the street. The Robinighof's 1785 frescoes were painted during a period when the Robinig family maintained a connection with Mozart, whose sons were friends with the Robinig children. The composer reportedly rehearsed in the ballroom.
The 19th century brought the railway and then the slow accumulation of the district's current character: transit infrastructure, commercial warehousing, local services, and the kind of residential streets that exist for people who live in Salzburg rather than for people who visit it. The Hauptbahnhof, Salzburg's main railway station, anchors the southern edge of the district.
The Rockhouse Salzburg opened in 1993 in a repurposed set of vaults on Schallmooser Hauptstrasse. In a city whose musical identity is synonymous with Mozart and the Festspiele, it has spent thirty years being reliably the opposite: 700 people in a basement, Queens of the Stone Age, Rammstein, local metal bands, jazz nights, and the annual birthday programme in October.
Planning
Schallmoos is directly accessible from the Hauptbahnhof. The Robinighof is on Robinigstrasse, a short walk from the station area; it is viewable from the street only. The Rockhouse Salzburg is at Schallmooser Hauptstrasse 46. The district is walkable from the Neustadt and the Linzer Gasse shopping street in around 10 minutes.