Composer
27 January 1756, Salzburg - 5 December 1791, Vienna
Salzburg’s most famous son. Born at Getreidegasse 9 on 27 January 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart showed extraordinary musical talent from earliest childhood. His father Leopold Mozart recognised the gift immediately and devoted his life to nurturing it. His sister Nannerl was herself a prodigy. Together, the family toured the courts of Europe from a tiny apartment in Salzburg’s Altstadt.
Mozart was baptised in Salzburg Cathedral, served as court musician to Archbishop Colloredo at the Residenz, and grew up in a musical world shaped by Biber, Michael Haydn, and Eberlin before him. The family’s closest friend was Lorenz Hagenauer, their landlord on the Getreidegasse. Dominicus Hagenauer, Lorenz’s son, received the famous “Dominicus Mass” (K. 66) when Mozart was seventeen.
The young Mozart also performed for Empress Maria Theresia at Schonbrunn Palace, charming her entirely. His first employer, Archbishop Schrattenbach, was benevolent. The relationship with Schrattenbach’s successor Colloredo was not.
In 1781, Mozart broke free from Salzburg and settled permanently in Vienna, where Emperor Joseph II commissioned Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail and, with Lorenzo da Ponte’s libretti, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi fan tutte. He married Constanze Weber, sister of Aloysia Weber, his first love.
He died on 5 December 1791 at the age of 35, leaving his Requiem unfinished. Franz Xaver Sussmayr, a student of Michael Haydn, completed it. His friend Joseph Haydn called him “the greatest composer known to me.”
Despite dying at 35, he left over 800 works. Salzburg’s entire cultural identity is shaped around his legacy: from Mozart’s Birthplace and Mozart’s Residence to Mozartwoche every January, from Mozartplatz to Mozart chocolate Kugeln on every street corner.
On the map
The 7 places on this page, where they actually stand.
Locations
The Alter Markt is Salzburg's oldest square, a compact rectangle in the heart of the Altstadt flanked by Baroque facades that replaced medieval buildings. Cafe Tomaselli, which has operated here since 1705, and the Hofapotheke (court pharmacy, established 1591) still occupy their original locations on the square.
Baroque
The third floor of Getreidegasse 9 is where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756, and where he spent the first seventeen years of his life.
1773
The larger apartment on Makartplatz where the Mozart family moved in 1773. Leopold Mozart lived here until his death in 1787. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived here until his permanent departure for Vienna in 1781.
Monument unveiled 1842
The Mozart statue on Mozartplatz was unveiled in 1842, sixteen years after Beethoven's death, by a committee that included Franz Schubert among its supporters, a detail that says something about how quickly Mozart's reputation had been institutionalized into civic bronze.
St. Peter's Cemetery in Salzburg has been continuously used since around 700 AD, making it one of the oldest Christian cemeteries in the German-speaking world. The graves press up against the cliff face of the Mönchsberg, where early Christian catacombs are carved directly into the rock.
Baroque
The official palace and seat of power of the Prince-Archbishops for over 200 years. Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau rebuilt it in grand baroque style. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed for the Archbishop in these very rooms. Troger's frescoes look down from the state rooms. Today the Prunkraume and Residenzgalerie are open to visitors. Directly on Residenzplatz.
Consecrated 1628
The first baroque cathedral built in the German-speaking world, and the dominant church at the heart of Salzburg's Altstadt. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptised here on 28 January 1756. The site has held a cathedral since 774, when Saint Virgil of Salzburg consecrated the first one.
Read more
The longer pieces where this comes up.
Mozart died in Vienna on 5 December 1791. He was thirty-five. We do not know what killed him. We do not know where he is buried. A skull that spent over a century in the Mozarteum probably is not his. And the family grave in Salzburg contains people who, according to DNA, are not related to each other.
Every week on my tours, someone asks about Salieri. Every week I explain that Amadeus is a film, not a documentary. That is only the beginning. The popular version of Mozart's life is a mix of half-truths, romantic exaggeration, and Hollywood invention. Here are the things most guides repeat that do not hold up.
Mozart did not leave Salzburg quietly. He was kicked out. Literally. Count Arco, the Archbishop's chamberlain, kicked him in the backside and threw him out of the room. Mozart was twenty-five. He never came back.
