Salzburg, The Reality vs. The Myth

After six weeks of living in Salzburg, all I can say is, it's a bloody weird place! Trapped in a strange time between the echo of the Middle ages, where Medieval merry-men plundered it's castle walls, and rolled around in coats of shining armor on it's Mountain pass, to the quiet fanciful charm of Baroque, where noble Catholic architecture proudly stretched it's marble arms and domed heart around the quiet town. To the hushed whisper of the World Wars, where in the depths of starvation, Adolf Hitler marched up these Holy roads, cheered on by thousands of impoverished Austrians. (If they had only known what atrocities they were welcoming to their doorstep, would they still have cheered?) Onto the ever changing tide of technology, with a thirsty contoured jawline of modern art slicing up the skyline into boxed-in balconies and sheer glass walls. To the sexy snowboarding, house music, hostel backpacking scene, sponsored by Redbull, which seems to be  a blend of the popular culture that most older Austrians vehemently despise, and the new exciting scene which younger Austrians want to backflip right into.

Violin concerts, Christmas Markets and jazz nights are essential to Salzburg's image. The candles are kept alight, the streetlights glow, Mozarts' omnipotent face flickers from the central platz. His chocolate foil-wrapped balls sold in every corner gift shop. His red robes and flushed cheeks smeared over every postcard. Paris-style padlocks of lovers cling to the wire mesh, suspended over the foamy current of the River Salzuch. Decorative carriages pulled by horses, trot along the cobbled streets, woolen clad Germans sip Stiegl in the Bierhaus, restauranteurs lick apfel strudel off the luxurious bowls of the Goldgasse, and beside the Virgin Mary of a Nativity scene; a spray painted willy.

Whilst the myth of The Sound Of Music continues, featuring a group of darling children, saved by the sensational Julie Andrews, escaping and singing amicably over the Alps on a musical conquest, the reality is much less frequented. The poor but principled family caught the train to Italy not Switzerland, fleeing the fear of Nazi spies and Scarlet fever, they sang their fragile hearts out in America, reaping little money from the box-office blockbuster to this day. Johannes von Trapp (the youngest son) said in a 1998 New York Times interview, "it's not what my family was about. [We were] about good taste, culture, (...) environmental sensitivity, artistic sensitivity. 'Sound of Music' simplifies everything. I think perhaps reality is at the same time less glamorous but more interesting than the myth." Meanwhile bright yellow Sound Of Music tour buses slam their soundtrack over bridges filled with giggling Americans. And a million tourists take a million selfies in the lush green gardens of the 'Mirabellplatz', their family home. The garden by evening however, with a nip in the winter air, rose buds untouched, fountains trickling away like poetry, in the shimmer of lamps, makes it much easier to imagine virtuous Von Trapp's casting their operatic voices high into the sky.

Homelessness is a problem in Salzburg, exacerbated by the worldwide Refugee Crisis. Sitting in doorways and road tunnels, holding laminated pictures of their families; an introduction written in German "Hello, I have two children..." are the same men and women, dressed in bundles of rags and heaps of fabric, everyday. Yesterday, beneath the shadow of a cloaked sculpture, based on the "Cloak of Conscience" by famous Czech artist Anna Chromy, I noticed a homeless lady also shrouded in dark blankets. Funnily enough, the sculpture is a replica of an artist's esteemed project to answer "the Hidden Message of Michelangelo’s Code" which goes:

​“God is Love. There will come a day in human history where man will rediscover his inner conscience. This will lead to a revolution as vital as the discovery of fire. It will be fueled by the energies of love and compassion. To mark this epochal change, an artist will be chosen to create an iconic work testifying to and symbolizing this change."

This lead to an artist excavating 250 ton of white rock from Michelangelo's protected quarry in Italy, to build a 5 meter high, faceless cloak figure, which people can enter and walk around in and use for 'inner reflection of their conscience'. The local Italian Abbot is quoted saying sadly; “Former places of worship, like the Sistine Chapel, have become pure tourist attractions today. They have lost their magic and meaning. The world needs a strong symbol for the new era which is coming upon us."

So whilst this grand expensive art installation in Italy is now used as the modern place of "sanctimony", in Austria, Salzburg, tourists flash a load of pictures of Chromy's shiny hooded sculpture. Selfie sticks take pics of the Cathedrals and the ancient Baroque monuments. But has the ancient, religious city of Salzburg lost its magic and meaning? Looming over the homeless old woman below, the "Cloak of conscience" shadows a refugee, as she peers down at the same cobbled street, into an empty bowl, silent, but for the click, click of gawping tourists. 

Salzburg's University, is nothing at all like my home University in funky spunky, drag and drug fueled Brighton! Education here seems to be more humbling than ever I have experienced. Here, University is like entering the community of a monastic life, your attendance is deemed committal, your value is virtuosity to your study, Professors glide around the marble corridors, greeted by students, lecture halls are filled with tentative faces and prepared notes! Library books are positioned like Holy books in glass cases ready to be pored over by new young minds. Whilst one of my classes is in an old, listed Gothic building in the courtyard of St Paul's Cathedral, the other campus is a huge glistening glass box, endorsed for it's pioneering Modern architecture; fondly known of as "The student zoo" by German and Austrian Students. (I am forever walking into walls or getting the wrong staircase because it's so glassy you feel you could walk right off one floor and into the sky!) ​

University Campus, Nonntal.

It is this weird culmination of old and new, Ancient and Modern which is so strikingly significant in Salzburg's image, and yet so insignificant when you understand Austrian History. With a culture of constantly rebuilding and re-establishing itself, it all began with the Great Habsburg Empire (a royal family who married and had sex with lots of other grand European Kings and Queens to gain most of Europe under it's belt). Boasting a prestige that Austrians are still proud of today. It may not have had the girth and grandeur of the Great British Empire (but is that really something we can be proud of?) The Habsburg Monarchy was loved by all; divinity and democracy trilling together like a fine composition, life was good! Hungarians, Slovakians, Bosnians and Austrians (to name a few) all held hands and danced around their Alpine Alchemy, with strong trade and booming industry.

Kaiser Leopold I was very fashionable and has fabulously plumped lips. It is said he loved the theatrical dressing up involved in being an emperor, but not the drama of running an empire!

Shifting into the 17th and 18th Centuries, Salzburg was re-moulded into the 'Baroque Jewel of the Alps'. Fancy prince-Archbishops plundered shitloads of money into building or refashioning many churches, houses, gardens and fountains. As God was in need of updating by this point, he was exquisitely depicted in the first-rate painted murals on every high ceiling! Rome-style domes were erected, dramatically suspending allure and grandeur over the fine peasant Catholics and pesky puritans below. Heaven and Hell had never been so much fun, a splash of red, a gold gilded cloud of blue!

The beautiful lake Fuschlsee, Salzburg, in Winter.

But all that changed again with the war, with the Great Depression, and with the brutality of nazism, which still haunts the newspapers now. Whilst The Austrian Freedom Party (formally ex-Nazis) grin away on Austrian Television, with their mantra of Making Austria Great Again! Racism is still prevalent. I am grateful everyday that by being a white exchange student, not having any knowledge of the German language does not incriminate me.

Austria's Freedom Party campaign vandalized, lead by popular figure Heinz-Christian Strache, he has extreme far-right views and is openly Islamophobic.

During the Nazi Regime, streets were changed to Adolf Hitler's name cross Austria and Germany, this square is now called Market-platz.

Today, clasped in the silk blue gloves of the Conservative party, Salzburg prides itself on a law-abiding, tax paying culture. Where people buy a tram ticket even though it often never gets checked by the tram driver because you should be trusted. And residents wait courteously for traffic lights to change even if there are no cars, etiquette triumphs exorbitance, and if you would like to express yourself, don't be vulgar, buy a bloody violin!

So I can't frame Salzburg in one way or another. I cannot say it is a racist, backward city, or a Godly sacred state, I would be narrow too, to par it off as an adrenaline junkies village for snowboarders' taking time off from shredding powder in the peaks. It is full of life and yet hardly breathing. Full of enterprise and yet empty of ego. Flirting with the future, yet in love with it's past. By welcoming Greener energy, running good public transport connections across the City (with battery powered trams and incredible cycling routes), and forging an inspiring health care system; leading the way in mainstreaming nutritional and holistic health over the Americanised culture of abusive antibiotics, they are in so many ways clean and cherishing, noble and nourishing, but yet there's something politically filthy going on under the covers!

Cleaner energy, cleaner air!

Can you believe this is a pharmacy? Beautiful Apotheke, helping people get better through nutrition and wellbeing.