The Makartsteg, the Salzach riverside and the Steingasse

The Makartsteg — officially the Marko-Feingold-Steg since 2021, though nobody calls it that — is the footbridge between the Mirabell side and the old town, hung end to end with love padlocks and open on both sides to the river: downstream the fortress on its rock and the Kapuzinerberg, upstream the bridges and the domes. It is the natural link in any Salzburg session and a frame in its own right, especially in the evening when the padlocks catch the low sun and the fortress lights up behind them.

On either bank the Salzach promenade runs under the old-town façades and the Kapuzinerberg woods, with benches, plane trees and the milky green of a glacier-fed river; in summer the water is high and fast, in winter low and grey-green with snow on the banks. The left bank looks at the Kapuzinerberg, the right bank at the old town — choose by what you want behind you.

A few minutes upstream on the right bank, the Steingasse begins at the Steintor and runs south along the foot of the Kapuzinerberg: a medieval lane one cart wide, cobbled and shuttered, with tall houses on the river side and the rock on the other, where Joseph Mohr, who wrote the words of Silent Night, was born at number nine. The rock keeps it in shade, so the light is soft from morning to evening and the colours of the plaster carry the frame; it is quiet at almost any hour.

All of this is public street and needs nothing. In December the Steingasse's lanterns and the fortress floodlights make the best after-dark walk in the city; from late July the festival crowds cross the bridge in evening dress, which is a scene of its own.