Sound of Music

The Sound of Music was originally a stage musical, adapted as a 1965 film set in Salzburg, Austria. The film was a box office record-breaker in 29 countries, won five Oscars, and was once the highest grossing movie of all time. While the film has never been popular in Austria itself, it is a great showcase of locations of the Alps.

Understand

Schloss Leopoldskron, where scenes were filmed representing the lakefront terrace and gardens of the von Trapp villa

The von Trapp family was a singing group formed in Austria in the 1930s by naval officer Georg von Trapp and his family. Following Germany's 1938 annexation of Austria, they emigrated to Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, until settling in Vermont in the United States.

Maria von Trapp published a memoir in 1949, somewhat embellishing and glossing some facts, due to her controlling and self-promoting tendencies. The book inspired the 1956 West German comedy drama film Die Trapp-Familie, one of the most successful German films of the 1950s. This film is freely available in good quality with subtitles on YouTube, and makes for an interesting viewing experience, as the later classic movie followed its structure almost scene by scene, and despite not being a "musical" in the Broadway/Hollywood sense, it has some impressive musical numbers featuring the a capella polyphonic choral singing and the old Austrian hunting and sacred songs for which the family was then famous. The screenwriters took some more artistic license with Maria's version, for the sake of cinematic storytelling.

This film in turn was the inspiration for the even more fictionalized stage play The Sound of Music, a full musical with an original score by Rodgers and Hammerstein and no songs from the family's repertoire, which debuted on Broadway in 1959. 20th Century Fox eventually bought its movie rights, and was slow to start production, because of the costly and troublesome shooting of Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, and its poor box office numbers.

The latter film is set in 1938, as Maria (Julie Andrews) drops out of a Catholic convent to become governess of retired and widowed naval captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer)'s seven children - in reality, they married in 1927. While he has kept military discipline in the house, Maria is more free-spirited, and teaches the children with music. As Nazi Germany takes power over Austria (the Anschluss), the family decides to escape to Switzerland over the mountains on foot - in reality, they simply boarded a regular train to Italy.

The Sound of Music has been a great world success. Still in the 2020s, the stage musical plays at many venues, and the story inspires many visitors to see Salzburg and Austria. However, the Hollywood version never appealed to a Germanophone audience, which has always favoured the 1956 version. Besides gross geographical inaccuracies, Austrians are prone to dislike the American songwriting (one song was once described as "an insult to Austrian musical traditions") and might find their country presented in a stereotypical theme-park-like way, while Germans have been troubled by the Nazi theme, provided that the film was released only 20 years past World War II.

Both films play into the "Austria victim theory"; the claim that the country was the first to be occupied by Nazi Germany, without regard to the many Austrian Nazi leaders, including Hitler, who were perpetrators in World War II and the Holocaust (see Holocaust remembrance#Austria for more information). The films take place just before the war, and focus on the Anschluss, though the German film approaches the question in a less "black and white" and more "shades of grey" manner than the American one.

In the 21th century, the city and the region have been coming to terms with the legacy of The Sound of Music, recognizing the business opportunities created by the film's world popularity, and adapting to create more ways to give fans what they want, with many filming location tours and musical events happening every year.

Destinations

Salzburg

• 1 Nonnberg Abbey. The oldest operational nunnery in the German-speaking world, founded in 715, where the real Maria also lived. It's the location for the beginning of the film. It was only shot on the outside; the interiors were filmed in the American studio.  
• 2 Humboldt Terrasse. Just after leaving the nunnery, Maria starts singing "I Have Confidence" and passes through this viewpoint. It's not across the street from the nunnery as the movie seems to imply.  
• 3 Residenzplatz. The square in front of the prince-archbishops' centrally located ceremonial city palace, with the beautiful fountain with horses, where Maria is still singing "I Have Confidence". Later on in the film, the Nazi troops come marching in for the Anschluss.  
• 4 Schloss Frohnburg. Maria finishes singing "I Have Confidence" as she arrives here, at the location of the entrance to Villa von Trapp. Nowadays it's a dormitory for the Mozarteum University of Music and Arts.  
• 5 Schloss Leopoldskron. The location of the lakeside terrace and gardens of Villa von Trapp. Originally a summer residence for the prince-archbishops, nowadays it's a top-scale hotel. Some of its interiors inspired the indoors sets created in the American studio, and can be visited.  
• 6 Schloss Hellbrunn. This palace is world famous on its own, for its gardens and waterworks. Today the gardens are a public park and entrance the them is free. The white gazebo in the "16 Going On 17" scene, originally built by an American crew on the grounds of Leopoldskron and dismantled after filming, was later rebuilt here.  
• 7 Mozartsteg. Art Deco pedestrian bridge, better known nowadays as the "Do Re Mi bridge", seen during this song.  
• 8 Mönchsberg. Another nice city viewpoint visited on foot by Maria and the children.  
• 9 Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz. The square with the Horse Pond fountain, designed and built in 1603 and originally used as a place to wash the parade horses of the prince-archbishops, is visited on foot by Maria and the children.  
• 10 Petersfriedhof (St. Peter's Cemetery). One of the oldest cemeteries in Salzburg, dating back to around 700. Its chapel stands for the nuns' chapel at Nonnberg. No filming was done in the cemetery itself, but its tombs and atmosphere inspired the scenographic production in the American studio.  
• 11 Schloss Mirabell. A beautiful castle, built by an archbishop for his beloved courtesan, with gardens made famous by the "Do Re Mi" final dance sequence. Look for the Pegasus Fountain, the Garden of Dwarfs and the Garden of Roses with the iron grill hedge tunnel.  
• 12 Felsenreitschule. A very picturesque location, originally a horse riding school and small hunting venue built atop the quarry that supplied stone to build Salzburger Dom, it's the site of the music festival in the film's climax.  
• 13 Hotel Villa Trapp Salzburg (the real Villa von Trapp), Traunstraße 34 (close to Kapuzinerberg). Seized by the Nazi Party in 1939 after the family fled the country, it was one of Heinrich Himmler's personal residences during the war. Afterwards, a religious group, the Catholic Missionaries of the Precious Blood, bought the property from the Von Trapps, who had had their ownership restored after the Nazis were defeated. The priests rented out the property in the 1990s and it became a hotel in 2008. (updated Nov 2024)

Elsewhere

The Sound of Music gazebo at Schloss Hellbrunn

• 14 Mehlweg hill (near the town of Marktschellenberg, accessible by the road from Salzburg to Berchtesgaden). The meadow where Maria does the iconic anti-clockwise twirl with open arms to proclaim "the hills are alive...". It's reportedly on private land, off-limits to visitors. However, as seen more than once on YouTube travelogues, it's possible to hit the spot by motorcycle. The birch trees and the flowing stream are scenic props added by the filming crew, of which no traces remain. 
• 15 Mondsee Abbey (St. Michael's Basilica). The location for the scene of Georg and Maria's wedding. On the lakeside road nearby, were filmed scenes of Maria and the children bicycle riding.  
• 16 Hohenwerfen Castle. The backdrop for the meadow where the beginning of the "Do Re Mi" scene takes place. Nowadays, a marked hiking trail starts at the Werfen village's Tourist Office and goes through some cleverly designed trail markers until the filming spot.  
• 17 Schafberg Railway. Maria and the children are seen going up the hillside in this train.  
• 18 Obersalzberg (Berchtesgaden, Upper Bavaria). Standing for Switzerland in the final scene of the von Trapp family escaping over the mountains. The actual filming spot is 19 Roßfeld, in a tiny Bavarian panhandle inside Austria.  
• 20 20th Century Studios (Century City, California). Where the indoors scenes were shot.  

Go next

The film misses out on many of Salzburg's greatest visitor attractions, such as the Hohensalzburg Fortress, Mozart's house, and the Stiegl Brewery.