The Schlosskapelle Mirabell is a small baroque chapel inside Mirabell Palace, built by Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau for his mistress Salome Alt. Today it is used by Salzburg's Old Catholic community, a denomination that split from Rome in 1870. Usually closed to casual visitors.
The Story
Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau became Archbishop of Salzburg in 1587 and began one of the most transformative periods in the city's architectural history. He also, unusually for an Archbishop, had a long and open domestic relationship with Salome Alt, with whom he fathered at least ten children. He built the original Schloss Altenau, later renamed Mirabell, for her. The Schlosskapelle was part of that complex: a private chapel for an Archbishop's family that officially could not exist.
Wolf Dietrich's political situation eventually became untenable. He was imprisoned by his successor and died in the Hohensalzburg Fortress in 1617. The palace was rebuilt and renamed by later archbishops. But the chapel remained.
Today the Schlosskapelle serves Salzburg's Old Catholic community, a denomination that formed in 1870 when a group of bishops and laypeople refused to accept the First Vatican Council's declaration of papal infallibility. Old Catholics maintain apostolic succession independently of Rome and have remained a small but theologically rigorous presence in the German-speaking world since.
The combination of original function (a private baroque devotional space for an Archbishop's forbidden family) and current use (a principled minority denomination that rejected a specific papal claim) gives this modest chapel a density of meaning that no guidebook entry usually captures. The space is normally closed; it opens for Old Catholic services and occasional concerts.
Visiting
- Address: Mirabellplatz 4 (inside Mirabell Palace), 5020 Salzburg
- Hours: Usually closed to casual visitors; opens for Old Catholic services and occasional concerts
- Cost: Free when accessible
- Duration: 10 minutes
- Getting there: Inside Mirabell Palace on Mirabellplatz
- Combine with: Mirabell Palace, Mirabell Gardens