Helbrunn Palace is located 6 kilometres south of the city of Salzburg. It was built between 1613 and 1615 by the famous architect Santino Solari, who also designed Salzburg's cathedral. The palace was intended as a summer residence for Archbishop Markus Zittikus.
The new Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Markus Zittikus, spent most of his life in Italy and therefore wished to build himself a residence in the Italian Renaissance or Mannerist style, a later architectural style. This building really resembles a typical Venetian villa in its appearance. It is a bright, elegant building painted yellow, distinguished by one distinctive annex and amusing blue-green shutters. In 1615, the small hunting castle Mountschloss was erected on the slope of Helbrunn Mountain in the same style. Now it houses an ethnographic (local history) museum, which presents samples of folk crafts, cultural and household items and other artefacts that tell about the history of the region.
Among the internal rooms of the palace, the main hall is particularly luxuriously decorated, the walls and ceiling of which are painted with unique frescoes of the XVII century. The former music parlour is crowned with an elegant dome.
Of particular interest is the huge park in front of the palace. Its area exceeds 60 hectares. It was created in the style of Mannerism. Here everywhere picturesque ponds and mysterious grottoes, fountains "jest" and figures of stone monsters. The Neptune's Grotto with its 1000-jet fountain, the Grotto of Orpheus and Eurydice decorated with red marble figures and unusual lead trees equipped with mechanical singing birds are very impressive. However, the real masterpiece of engineering of that era is the Mechanical Theatre, made in 1752. It consists of 256 figures and depicts scenes from the life of a medieval town. Everything is propelled by water power alone, even the small musical organ that is part of the theatre.
Another theatre stage is located right in the crevice of Helbrunn Mountain. It is Europe's oldest open-air theatre. It hosts a colourful summer festival every August. Also on the territory of the palace park, the city zoo was opened in 1961.
