The New Residenz

To complete our tour of the square, with our backs to the Residenz, we need to look right.

We can see yet another long building running alongside the square. You’ll particularly notice its carillon tower, which houses a large set of church bells. This is known locally as the Glockenspiel. The building’s architecture is quite simple and uniform with 3 rows of plain windows without balconies. Nevertheless, the overall effect is quite charming. What draw our attention in particular are the height of the tower and its series of ground floor archways.

We’re going to talk a little about its history. Naturally, you can move ahead to the next chapter entitled “The Fountain », at any moment.

Coming back to this monument, today it’s home to the city’s central Post Office and the offices of the Federal Provincial government. Known as the New Residenz Palace, it was built in about 1600 by Prince Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau. He was the 1st sovereign of Salzburg to act as patron to the arts and the town owes its present layout to him. This new palace was intended to house both the royal family and guests of honour whilst the sovereign himself resided in the palace opposite.

Take a moment to look up at the top of the tower. There we’ll see very distinctly a green copper turret open on all sides and inside, a great number of bells. This is of course the carillon. The 25 bells that hang here were commissioned from Antwerp by Prince Johann Ernst von Thun round about 1700. Nowadays, the chiming of the bells is one of the high spots of the day and much appreciated by visitors to the city. They ring out 3 times per day at 7 am, 11 am and 6 pm. The bells play one of 40 tunes composed for them by Haydn, Leopold and of course his son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

During the 18th century, they had to compete with the formidable sound of an organ from inside the fortress. This was known as “The Bull” because of the bellowing noise it made.

The 2nd floor of the New Residenz Palace has a number of magnificent staterooms dating from 1600 to 1602 which are used nowadays by Salzburg’s Senate. They’re occasionally open to the public, but it’s best to check beforehand with the Tourist Office.