The film that made Salzburg famous around the world
“From the abbey to global success”. The story of Maria Trapp (born Kutschera), the former novice from Nonnberg Abbey, made it to Hollywood. In 1965, Hollywood came to Salzburg to film the story of the Trapp family.
Maria Kutschera was a novice at Nonnberg Abbey, just a few minutes’ walk from the Altstadthotel Kasererbräu. The nuns sent her to Baron von Trapp, whose wife had died. Maria was to look after the Baron’s seven children. Her loving manner won over the hearts of the children and the Baron, who took Maria as his wife. The Trapps enjoyed a harmonious family life until the Third Reich. Singing and dancing played an important role in the Trapps’ family life. Maria started a family choir, and the Trapps entered a folk music competition in Salzburg – and won.
And went to America
As Baron Georg Ludwig von Trapp was forced to join the German Marines, he refused and fled with his family to Switzerland under the cover of darkness. From there, the Trapps emigrated to the USA. The family travelled across America performing as the ‘Trapp Family Singers’. As Maria Trapp wrote about her story in 1949, she had no idea that it would inspire one of the most successful musicals of all time.
Sound Of Music
In the mid-1960s, a team from 20th Century Fox Studios made the journey from Hollywood to Salzburg. With Maria Trapp’s book in their bags, Julie Andrews and Christoph Plummer were to be the stars of ‘The Sound of Music’. Still successful to this day, the musical was filmed in Salzburg’s most beautiful locations. Such as Nonnberg Abbey, which overlooks the Altstadthotel Kasererbräu. The Trapp family’s life and Salzburg are inseparable. That’s why it’s especially great that this legendary musical premiered in Salzburg. The musical showed at the Salzburger Landestheatre on the 23rd of October 2011.
More filming locations in Salzburg:
- Nonnberg Abbey: just a few minutes’ walk from the Altstadthotel Kasererbräu
- Mirabell Palace Gardens: 15 minutes’ walk away: it was here that the Trapps sang the famous ‘Do Re Mi’
- Mönchsbergstiege at the M32
- Schloss Leopoldskron Castle
- Schloss Frohnburg Castle
- The horse pond at the “Festspielhaus Theatre”
- St Peter’s Cemetery: site of the exciting chase scenes
- Hellbrunn Palace Gardens: where the legendary pavilion from the film now stands
