Richard Halverstadt: December 28, 2010: Mozart's house/museum, Residenz Palace

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

December 28, 2010: Mozart's house/museum, Residenz Palace

December 28, 2010: After our standard breakfast of a breakfast roll and cappuccino, we went to the birth house of Mozart which is located on Getreidegasse.

Mozart's Birth house

The Mozarts lived on only one floor of this building. The house is now a museum and the displays were quite interesting telling the visitor the history of Mozart, his brothers and sisters (only one sister lived into adulthood and both Amadeus and his sister were talented musicians), and his parents. The letters written by Mozart were quite flowery, showing his great affection for his parents, wife, and children.

After visiting the museum, we walked across the river to the house that Mozart lived in after his family grew too large for the small apartment they had been living in up until then. The walk across the river provided another nice picture of buildings on the cliff.

Neither Mozart's birth house nor the house where Mozart lived later contained any furniture from the time that Mozart lived there since all of Mozart's belongings were sold after his death (He had accrued a lot of debt and his widow had to sell it to make ends meet).

After a nice lunch, Ruth went shopping while I visited the Maribell Gardens. On the way, I passed a number of stately buildings.

Dreifaltigkeits Church

Andra Church

The gardens, as you can imagine, didn't have much in the way of flowers. However, I could see how beautiful the gardens must be in the summer with the castle visible in the distance.

Mirabell Gardens

Mirabell Gardens (Castle in background)

On the way back to meet Ruth, I went to the St. Blasius Church located at the end of Getreidegasse.

approach to St. Blasius Church from Getreidegasse

inside St. Blasius Church (sorry for blurry picture)

I also passed by a quaint alley.

After lunch, we went to the Residenz, a palace furnished as it was in the time it was used. The rooms were enormous and the furniture and walls in many rooms were velvet covered. Ornate porcelain stoves warmed each room.