Salzburg’s hills are still alive through this timeless classic.
By Julian Mattocks
Photographs Courtesy Julian Mattocks
On the terrace at the back of Leopoldskron Palace in Salzburg, a small crowd congregates in eager anticipation. With the incoming clouds threatening to cover the Untersberg mountain in the distance, first an American party then a group of Latin American ladies skip down to the seahorse gate for a photo in front of the idyllic lake … an instantly recognizable scene where Maria and the children fall out of a rowboat in The Sound of Music. There’s a ripple of laughter as someone spots a mother duck and her seven cygnets gliding past, a fitting prelude to the von Trapp story about to be told inside. But the biggest surprise comes when names are checked, and I learn that most attendees for the tour this evening are locals. After 60 years, the movie—filmed over 11 weeks in and around Salzburg in 1964 and released in 1965—still has an undeniably enduring appeal, bringing an estimated 300,000 visitors to the city each year. But despite its gargantuan popularity worldwide, the film is still largely unknown in Austria.
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