The Sound of Music Movie - Salzburg Filming Locations

An Exhaustive Listing

Locally Filmed Scenes Listed Alphabetically by Geographical Location:

 Altstadt (Old Town) Area:

Domhof
In “I Have Confidence” & “Do Re Mi”

 Residenzplatz & Fountain (largest baroque fountain outside Italy)
“I Have Confidence”
Nazi soldiers marching through after Anschluss
Kapitelplatz
In “I Have Confidence”		 Rock Riding School (The real von Trapp family sang in a festival here)
Herr Zeller looks for the Captain while he’s on his honeymoon.
Rolf delivers a telegram.
The Salzburg song festival.
Nonnberg Abbey (At east end of Hohensalzburg; oldest abbey north of the Alps):
Maria leaving the abbey for the von Trapp house.
Children come to the gate to visit Maria.
Escape scene with cars zooming past the abbey.		 St. Peter’s Church
Opening scene
Outside shot after the wedding
Painted Horse Fountain (Karajam-Platz)
In “Do Re Mi”		  

 

Other Parts of Salzburg:

Frohnburg Palace (On Hellbrunner Allee, 2 km SE of Hohensalzburg)
All scenes showing the front of the von Trapp house, including pushing the car out during escape attempt.

 Mozart Footbridge (crosses the Salzach River)
In “Do Re Mi” song
Gazebo (Formerly in back yard at Leopoldskron; Now at Hellbrunn Palace, behind the wall to the left before you enter the palace grounds):
“16 going on 17” with Liesl & Rolf
“Something Good” with Maria & Georg		 Pathway above Toscaninihof, toward Winkler Restaurant
In “I Have Confidence” & “Do Re Mi”
Leopoldskron Palace (On Leopoldskroner Allee, 1 km SW of Hohensalzburg):
All back of house shots with the lake and the gazebo (which has been moved to Hellbrunn Palace)		 Von Trapp Home: (Traunstr. 34 in Aigen, just north of the Aigen train station)
The house where the real von Trapp’s lived is a villa in the Salzburg suburb of Aigen (southeast of the old town). After the von Trapp’s left, Himmler annexed it and it became the telephone headquarters for the Third Reich. After the war, the von Trapp’s sold it to buy land in Vermont. They sold it to a seminary for the order “Brothers of the Holy Blood.” Tourists may visit the gardens on the property, but must be quiet and not enter the house. Part of the property is now rented by the International Center for Culture and Management. The villa was deemed unsatisfactory for filming, and is not seen in the movie.
Mirabell Gardens (Pegasus fountain, ivy-covered walkway, classic statues at entrance, fountain, Dwarf garden, hopping up stairs to rose garden)
In “Do Re Mi”

 

Outside of Salzburg:

Mellweg Mountain by Schellenberg, Germany:
“The Sounds of Music” song

 Werfen with Hohenwerfen Fortress (25 km south of Salzburg):
Picnic in “Do Re Mi”
Mondsee Cathedral (Mondsee):
Interior scenes of the wedding		 Lake Wolfgang
Anif Palace
Hohenwerfen Castle
Mondsee
Fuschl
St. Gilgen
All are seen during opening aerial scenes.
Untersberg (Mountain 10 km SW of Salzburg):
Opening scene after “Sound of Music” song.
Final escape scene with family hiking to safety.

 

Locally Filmed Locations in Order as Shown in the Movie
(Chapter headings are from the DVD):

Opening Flight Scenes
Lake Wolfgang
Anif Palace
Hohenwerfen Castle
Mondsee
Fuschl
St. Gilgen		 The Party
(Dancing in the house and in the garden outside the house is a Hollywood set)
A New Mother
Leopoldskron: Tossing ball with Baroness Schraeder & drinking lemonade on terrace, singing a sad “The Hills are Alive”
“The Hills are Alive“
Filmed at Mellweg, Germany, just across the border from Salzburg.

Children Visit the Abbey
Nonnberg Abbey: Children at gate and in courtyard, trying to see Maria
Title Scenes
Helicopter shots over Untersberg, into the Berchtesgaden valley with Königssee and by the Eagle’s Nest, then into the Lake District and back to Salzburg.
Various churches, including Salzburg Cathedral
Hohensalzburg		 My Favorite Things Reprise
Leopoldskron: Georg trying to find out where children had been, then Maria comes and they sing “My Favorite Things”
Abbey
Nonnberg Abbey (outside and courtyard only; permission was not given to film inside, so the interiors were rebuilt and filmed in Hollywood)
Songs:    Dixit Dominus (Psalm 110);    Morning Hymn (Rex Admirabilis);    Allelulia

The Baroness Departs
Leopoldskron: Georg on balcony, watching Maria; Baroness talks and leaves
(“Maria”)
(Nonnberg Abbey courtyard is a Hollywood set. The Mother Abbess’s Quarters were filmed in Salzburg, but on a set at the Dürer Film Studios)		 Maria and the Captain
Leopoldskron: Gazebo; Maria and Georg talk, sing “Something Good,” kiss
“I Have Confidence”
Leaving Nonnberg Abbey courtyard
Path above Toscaninihof, toward Winkler Restaurant, with cathedral and city in background.
Walking under archway into Domplatz (The real Maria von Trapp is the lady in the green dress with the head scarf, crossing the street in the background).
Residenz Fountain in Residenzplatz.
Kapitelplatz with Hohensalzburg in background (getting on bus).
Tree-lined gravel walkway in front of Frohnburg.		 Wedding Bells
(Preparing Maria is actually a Hollywood set)
St. Peter’s shown briefly from the outside
(The altar with the gateway is also a set)
Mondsee Cathedral: After Maria passes the gate, all interior shots are here. This is the only interior shot in the whole movie which was not filmed at a movie studio.
Zoom out to St. Peter’s exterior & Salzburg old city.
Villa von Trapp
Frohnburg house with front driveway & entrance
(The real Maria did call the butler “Captain” when she first met him at the door.)
All interiors were rebuilt and filmed in Hollywood.

Anschluss
Residenzplatz: Nazi soldiers marching & cars driving
Rock Riding School: Herr Zeller looks for the Captain
Rolf’s Message
Front of Frohnburg Palace (Rolf delivers a telegram to Franz the butler)

Telegram from Berlin
Rock Riding School: Rolf delivers telegram outside the festival house
Liesl’s Rendevous
Out back of Leopoldskron Palace to gazebo, which was originally located in the gardens behind the Leopoldskron, near the lake. The gazebo is now located at the Hellbrunn Palace grounds. It was only used for the external shots. All internal dancing shots were filmed in half-shell gazebos built in Hollywood. The film gazebo is locked now, after an elderly lady tried hopping from bench to bench and fell and broke her leg. Interestingly, the “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” dance was one of the first scenes filmed for the movie, and Charmian Carr (Liesl) didn’t have her slip-proof shoes on for the dance, slipped and put her leg through the glass, cutting and spraining her ankle. She filmed the final cut of the dance with an Ace bandage on the ankle.

Flag of the Third Reich
Frohnburg Palace: Georg tears down the flag and he and Maria greet the children after their honeymoon.
Leaving the Villa
Frohnburg: Pushing the car out of the driveway and meeting Herr Zeller & gang.
Salzburg Folk Festival
Rock Riding School: The entire festival (These scenes were very difficult to light, requiring generators from all over Europe, and it was very cold) 
“Do-Re-Mi”
(This one song took six days to film because of bad weather)
Tree-lined boulevard in front of Frohnburg
Little Mozart bridge across the Salzach River
Domplatz
Painted horse fountain at Karajan-Platz
Marketplace (a built set)
Along banks of Salzach River
Steam engine train up mountain (Untersberg?)
Werfen with Hohenwerfen Fortress in background
Path above Toscaninihof, toward Winkler Restaurant on Hohensalzburg
Riding bikes along lakeside
Horse-drawn carriage in town
Mirabel gardens
·         Pegasus fountain
·         Ivy-covered walkway
·         Statues at entrance to gardens
·         Fountain
·         Dwarf from Zwerglgarten (Dwarf Garden)
·         Hopping up & down stairs to rose garden

Discovered by Rolf
Nonnberg Abbey: Cars racing down hill past the gate to the abbey & disabled Nazi cars trying to start

Escape from Salzburg
Untersberg: Family hiking on trail to escape (The real von Trapps crossed over the Alps into Italy – ostensibly to go mountain climbing, even though Maria was pregnant with her third child by this time – then they traveled to England, and took a ship to America. When their travel visas ran out, they were forced to return to Europe, but then were able to come back and purchase a farm in Vermont. To book a week at their lodge, go to www.trappfamily.com ) 

“They’re Gone!”
Nonnberg Abbey: Zeller’s men pull up to front of abbey, looking for von Trapps. Interior shots are Hollywood sets, including the cemetery.
Returning from Vienna
Driving down tree-covered boulevard in front of Frohnburg
Klopmann Monastery (There does not seem to be any such monastery. It is not clear which building is shown briefly when this choir is heard.)		  
Baroness Schraeder
Leopoldskron: Back of house & lake
Children rowing up to back of house (Gretl nearly drowned when the boats turned over, since she couldn’t swim.)		  

 

Guide books and tour groups will say that the “Maria” song was filmed in Nonnberg, and the scene with the family hiding in the cemetery was filmed in St. Peter’s cemetery. However, both were carefully re-created Hollywood sets.

Sources:
"The Sound of Music: The Making of America's Favorite Movie," by Julia Antopol Hirsch. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1993.
(The one definitive source about the making of the movie).
"The Story of the Trapp Family Singers," by Maria Augusta Trapp. New York: Doubleday, 1990.
"Forever Liesl: A Memoir of The Sound of Music," by Charmian Carr. New York: Viking, 2000.

Maps:
Maps showing all of the in-town locations can be found at: 
http://www2.salzburg.info/578.htm 
http://www.salzburg.info/sights.jpg 
http://www.biega.com/salzburg.html 

Compiled by Brooks Haderlie, November 2003.