Where to celebrate "The Sound of Music" in Salzburg
Make the most of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of "The Sound of Music" in Salzburg in 2025.
Nothing belts out "visit Austria" quite like everyone’s favorite singing nun. When Maria von Trapp twirled joyously through flowery meadows crying “The Hills Are Alive” in the 1965 blockbuster movie The Sound of Music, she announced the country’s beauty to the world big time. But the reality is even dreamier than the Hollywood legend, with settings that send your soul soaring higher than Julie Andrews’ octave-leaping vocals.
Salzburg is cinematically beautiful, with its hilltop castle, turquoise river, stately baroque plazas and palaces, sculpture-strewn gardens, and snow-dusted Alps razoring across the horizon. And in 2025, the stage is once again set as the city pulls out all the stops for the 60th anniversary of The Sound of Music, with performances, exhibitions and special tours of filming locations. Don’t stop there: the wider Salzburgerland region, which also starred in the film, has landscapes to make you want to yodel out loud and climb every mountain – especially if there is a drop of golden sun.
You can hook on to many a guided Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, but it’s far more fun to arrange your own spin of the sights. Read on for the inside scoop on the film’s locations, plus tips on how to make the most of the 60th-anniversary celebrations and dodge the tourist traps by seeking out lesser-known movie backdrops.
Key filming locations
Nonnberg Abbey
Get up as day breaks gold-pink over the Alps for a short, sweet climb up the Nonnbergstiege (stairs) to reach Stift Nonnberg (Nonnberg Abbey) by 6:45am sharp. Do so and you’ll be mesmerized by the spine-tingling sound of nuns chanting Gregorian chorales at one of Europe’s oldest working abbeys. Founded by St Rupert, patron saint of Salzburg, way back in 715 CE, the Benedictine abbey is off-limits apart from its rib-vaulted church, where you can glimpse Romanesque frescoes.
If you experience a moment of déjà vu, it’s probably because you’ve seen nuns waltzing on their way to mass and heard about problems like Maria at this abbey in The Sound of Music.
Planning tip: Not an early riser? Hear the chorales again at 5:15pm on weekdays, 5pm on Saturdays and 4:30pm on Sundays.
Residenzplatz
Mozart’s hood back in the 18th century, Salzburg’s UNESCO World Heritage Altstadt is a feast of baroque architecture that lifts gazes and spirits with its soaring domes, spires and palaces where lordly prince-archbishops once ruled the roost. Right in its historic heart is the stately Residenzplatz, where Maria sings "I Have Confidence" and playfully splashes the water-spouting horses of the huge marble Residenzbrunnen fountain.
With its horse-drawn carriages and lavish Residenz palace, this plaza is the vision of Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich. Taking inspiration from Rome, he drafted Italian architect Vincenzo Scamozzi to design it.
Planning tip: The quietest time to see the square and avoid the madding crowds is early morning, while the city is still waking up. 
Felsenreitschule
Designed in 1693 by the whiz kid of the baroque age, architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, the Felsenreitschule is one of the premier venues of the summertime Salzburg Festival. The theater is inspired by the old baroque stables of the cavalry of Prince-Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun and hewn from the sheer rock face of Mönchsberg.
The theater was the dramatic setting for the Salzburg Festival in the film, when the von Trapp Family Singers dazzle the audience with their rendition of “Edelweiss” and manage to escape the Nazis with their timely exit during “So Long, Farewell.”
St Peter’s Cemetery
The edge-of-the-seat scene in The Sound of Music when the von Trapps hide behind tombstones in a cemetery as the Nazis try to hunt them down was filmed at St Peter’s, one of Salzburg’s historic big hitters. Founded in 700 CE by St Rupert, the abbey, church and monastery are the oldest in the German-speaking world.
Go for an atmospheric wander around the graveyard and you’ll notice intricately carved headstones, skull-bearing cherubs, filigree wrought-iron crosses and ancient catacombs; cavelike chapels and crypts are hacked out of the Mönchsberg cliff face. 
Mirabell Gardens
Remember that scene in the movie when the von Trapp kids learn to sing “Do-Re-Mi” as they jump up and down steps like musical scales? That was filmed in the gardens of the baroque Schloss Mirabell, which Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich built to impress his mistress Salome Alt in 1606. The opulently frescoed interior is striking, but it’s the park that really has the wow factor.
Redesigned in geometric form by Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun, the gardens weave in the romantic elements of the age – fountains, muses, parterres and fragrant rose gardens. Head across to the Tänzerin (dancer) sculpture for knockout views of Salzburg’s 900-year-old fortress, Festung Hohensalzburg, crowning the hillside opposite.
Planning tip: Go at lunchtime and seek out a quiet corner of the gardens for a picnic (and perhaps a sneaky sing). Keep your eyes peeled for the Pegasus statue, the steps and the gnomes of the Zwerglgarten (Dwarf Garden) that appeared in the film.
Schloss Hellbrunn
In the movie, telegram delivery boy Rolf spins and sways a loved-up Liesl around an ornate pavilion, both crooning "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" as the rain pounds against the windows. You’ll find said pavilion in the beautifully manicured park of Schloss Hellbrunn. It’s free to romp around the ponds, sculptures and leafy avenues in the gardens. Dodge the rain and instead choose a spring or summer day when the flowers are in full bloom.
When you’ve acted out all your "Oh, Liesl," "Oh, Rolf" fantasies, explore the castle itself – a sumptuous Italianate pleasure palace built for Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus in 1615 to escape his ecclesiastical duties and let his hair down. Most fun of all are the trick fountains, where you should prepare to get absolutely soaked exploring the mock Roman theater, shell-clad Neptune Grotto, Bird Grotto and water-powered Mechanical Theater.
Word has it that the palace is welcoming a new Sound of Music museum in 2026.
Planning tip: Rent a bike with aVelo for a pretty ride along the Salzach River, with the fortress and mountains popping up as you pedal. It takes only 20 minutes to reach Schloss Hellbrunn from the center of Salzburg. 
Beyond the "Tourist Trapps"
Here's where you can find the less obvious sites associated with the movie, all easily accessible from Salzburg on a day trip.
Schloss Leopoldskron
The scene in the movie when Maria and the curtain-clad von Trapp kids frolic in a rowboat on a lake and tumble into the water with whoops of laughter was filmed at Schloss Leopoldskron, a handsome rococo palace with dreamy views of the fortress and mountains. The chandelier-lit Venetian Salon, with its exuberantly frescoed panels and mirrors, was the blueprint for the von Trapps’ grand ballroom, where the children bid guests “So Long, Farewell” before trotting upstairs to bed.
Just south of the Altstadt, the palace sees less tourist traffic than the film's other locations, particularly if you avoid the tour groups by visiting early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Better still, go for breakfast in the palace’s state rooms or stay the night in one of its 12 luxurious, antique-strewn suites.
Planning tip: The palace is 3.3km (2 miles) from the south of town; that's about a 45-minute walk, or you can bike it in just 10 minutes.
Untersberg
If you’ve always fancied hiking into the hills and giving the world the slip, Untersberg is a fine place to do just that. Where the mountains pucker up on the border with Bavaria in Germany, this peak is where the von Trapp family clambers up into the heights in the film’s finale to escape Nazi-occupied Austria, as “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” plays in the background. The views across buttercup-flecked pastures, spruce forest and snow-dusted Alps are as sensational in reality as they appear on screen.
Incidentally, in 1938 the real von Trapp family fled Austria for the USA, not Switzerland, as those closing film credits would have you believe.
Planning tip: It’s a half-hour ride on bus 5 or 25 from central Salzburg to the base station of the cable car. The cable car runs roughly every half hour from 8.30am to 5.30am, with slightly shorter hours in winter.
Mondsee
With lofty peaks punching above jewel-colored lakes and bauble-domed churches, the Salzkammergut region, unspooling east of Salzburg, is gorgeous. So gorgeous, in fact, that Mondsee was chosen as the backdrop for the tear-jerking wedding scene in The Sound of Music. The striking lemon-and-white, twin-towered baroque facade of Basilica Minor St Michael, where Maria and Georg von Trapp say their vows, is unmissable.
Planning tip: Avoid the height of summer, when crowds swell, or stay overnight on the shores of Mondsee to dodge the day-trippers and experience the lake at its peaceful best.
Werfen
The Tennengebirge Alps rise like a theater curtain above the Salzach River and pretty village of Werfen, a 40-minute train ride south of Salzburg. The mountains steal the show here, with doe-eyed cows clattering bells in wildflower-cloaked pastures that give way to ragged limestone peaks. If ever there was a sight to make you want to skip through the meadows while singing your heart out, this would be it.
Never one to miss a trick, the Hollywood director pounced on its loveliness for The Sound of Music picnic scene when Julie Andrews strums her guitar and teaches the von Trapp kids to sing “Do-Re-Mi.” Follow in their tuneful footsteps with a hike on the 1.4km (0.86-mile) Sound of Music Trail, twisting gently up to Gschwandtanger lookout for epic views over the mountains, meadows and medieval Burg Hohenwerfen crowning a clifftop.
Planning tip: Don’t rush straight off. Make a day of it and dive into the glittering chambers of Eisriesenwelt, the world’s largest accessible ice caves. 
How to join the 60th-anniversary celebrations in 2025
With 60th-anniversary celebrations in full swing, the appeal of visiting Salzburg is tenfold for Sound of Music fans in 2025. There are a raft of special events, including exhibitions, theater and musical productions, and themed walking tours, plus an anniversary bash in October in the pipeline.
Be sure to bookmark Sound of Music Salzburg – Insight and Outlook, a year-round exhibition at Schloss Leopoldskron, curated by the Salzburg Museum. Bringing together movie memorabilia and photos, the exhibition zooms in on the von Trapp family and the film, giving a sneak preview of the museum that will open at Hellbrunn in 2026.
In spring 2025, a new SmartGuide app will launch for The Sound of Music Trail in Werfen, with narration from Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrich in the film. It’s a great way to take a deep dive into the film and alpine landscapes, with a now 74-year-old Hammond sharing his favorite stories and behind-the-scenes moments.
From May to October, the red curtain will lift on The Sound of Music at the Salzburger Marionettentheater, with puppeteers breathing life into the characters and songs from the movie. Founded in 1913, the miniature marionette theater is just as opulent as any other venue, with its fancy stuccoed, chandelier-lit interior. As the weather warms, productions head outdoors, such as the open-air The Sound of Music in the park at Schloss Leopoldskron in June and July.
All of this is the drumroll for the anniversary week, kicking off on October 23 with insightful talks on the global phenomenon that is The Sound of Music at Schloss Leopoldskron and a gala dinner at the Felsenreitschule, with performances by the Salzburg State Theater and music by the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. The star-studded guest list will include cast members from the film and members of the von Trapp family.
And if you’d just prefer to hit those Julie Andrews–style high notes yourself, sign up for a warble-as-you-pedal ride with Fräulein Maria’s Bicycle Tour, a half-day bike tour that rolls from palace to plaza, park to abbey.
