Day three of our trip was a busy one! We really managed to cross the entire city and visit almost every since attraction that Marie herself danced across in her tour of Salzburg. Getting up in the morning we were sad to see the rain had not cleared but nothing would stop our desire to see everything this city has to offer. We got up, grabbed a quick orange juice from downstairs and headed out. Almost immediately we were amazed to see that the street were empty. It was Saturday Morning and apparently in tourist towns like this no one gets up before 10am. We were up much earlier than that and as we crossed in the Alter Market we were excited to see we had the whole place to ourselves.
The Alter Market transforms in the day into a beautiful square were locals and tourists alike can sit in the square, drink coffee, shop in the various stands and shop in the various interesting and varied shops that line this street. The chocolate shops and tea shop's odors simply draw you inside and leave you dizzy from all the lavish tastes and smells.
Alter means old so the Alter Market means the Old Market as it was first established in 1208. The statue that you can see in the middle of the square is the The Florianibrunnen (Market Fountain) which was built in 1488. The man on the top is St. Florian the patron saint of fire. The statue represents the place where the old well used to be. The well would be a large meeting place back when it was used regularly for the towns people and now this statue is still a place where people will meet, chat and perhaps even stop into one of the cafe near by for a Kaffee mit Milch. After strolling through the Alter Market and checking out an ancient thermometer to check the temperature for the day we headed over to the DOM. The Entirety of the Domplatz was empty and for a city where the tourist usually over whelm you wherever you go, this was a unqiue and special treat for us.
The dom was incredible. The sheer size of the DOM would have impressed the people of Salzburg back in 774, but now it is just one of the many towering churches that adorn Salzburg's skyline. The Dom itself went through many phases of construction throughout it's lifetime and each of the those major stages is immortalized on top of the three arches along the front of the church. On top of each arch, there is a date carved to symbolize the three periods of the church's construction into being the elegant and yet also understated church which stands before you today.
One of the most beautiful parts of the square around the DOM is the statue of the Madonna which has surrounding it statues carved into allegories of truth, justice and the history of the church. The sculptor Johann Baptist Hagenauer managed to convey such passion and emtoion in these cold marble figures and I could not help but feel slightly haunted by the cries from some of these figures in the quiet, dim morning mist.
Being an architecture nerd, I found it very interesting to find out that most of the material used to create the building was brought from the Untersberg mountain, found just nearby. And since this was the material used to create the front facade, they call this part the church's Untersbergmarmor.
The majority of the design was done in the 1660's and therefore the Baroque styling of the time are to be found everywhere you look inside and out around this magnificent building. Some of the main Baroque features that can be seen here is the importance taken in colour, contrast and the strong implementation of light and shadow in the details inside the church. Unlike some churches, the DOM doesn't overdo these elements and provides a nice contrast to other more gaudy Baroque and Renaissance churches.
After we left the church we walked around Kapitelplatz for a bit. Even though the famous chess pieces were still locked up from the night before it was great to see this place empty, that way all the details could be appreciated. Sarah noticed that looking back at the DOM, the windows looked like sad faces printed on the wall. Look closely, do you see it? I can't unsee it now and it always makes me laugh. We scurried around the square and then quickly took back up our search for the Funicular which was going to carry us to our first major
location of the day, the Salzburg Fortress!