Founded around 696 AD by Saint Rupert of Salzburg, Stift St. Peter has been in continuous monastic use for over 1,300 years, making it one of the oldest monasteries in the German-speaking world and the place where Salzburg's history begins.
The Story
Saint Rupert of Salzburg arrived at a ruined Roman settlement called Juvavum around 696 AD and founded a Benedictine community on the site. He served as both abbot and the city's first bishop, and it was his decision to name the settlement after the nearby salt mines that gave Salzburg its name. The abbey he established never closed. It survived fire, reformation, and two world wars, and the monks are still here.
The church standing today is a building of layers. A Romanesque basilica was raised between 1125 and 1147 after an earlier structure burned, its three aisles and rounded arches giving the space a quiet gravity that the thick stone walls reinforce. Abbot Beda Seeauer then spent more than two decades, from 1760 to 1782, covering those medieval bones in Rococo ornament: pastel frescoes, gilded moldings, and the kind of warm, light-filled interior that feels intimate rather than grand. Altomonte's altar paintings are still on the walls. Michael Haydn is buried in the crypt. Santino Solari, who designed Salzburg Cathedral, is buried in the Petersfriedhof directly outside.
The Petersfriedhof presses against the Mönchsberg cliff face, its arcaded galleries cut with rock-hewn catacombs. The Abbey Bakery beside the church still fires its wood oven and sells bread on weekday mornings. The Stiftskeller St Peter restaurant occupies the same complex and claims to be the oldest restaurant in Europe. Between the church, the cemetery, the bakery, and the restaurant, a single block of Salzburg holds more continuous history than most cities can claim in total.
Visiting
- Hours: Church open daily 8am-noon and 2:30pm-6:30pm; may vary during services
- Cost: Free
- Getting there: Altstadt, between Kapitelplatz and the Mönchsberg cliff; well signed from the main squares
- Book ahead: Not needed for the church
- Combine with: Petersfriedhof (directly adjacent), Stiftsbackerei St Peter (weekday mornings), Stiftskeller St Peter (lunch or dinner; reserve ahead)