Mirabell Palace and Gardens

In Italian, ‘mirabile’ means amazing. And the Mirabell Palace, tucked up between the Salzach River and the rising peak of the Kapuzinerberg, is certainly that. Built, as so many of Salzburg's palaces were, by one of the city's Prince Archbishops, it has been a lovers' hideaway, a Baroque glory and a neoclassical summer-home for the Emperor. The Palace remains a sumptuous temple to love inside—its famed Marble Staircase the ultimate prop for many weddings. But it's the outside that grabs the attention first. The Mirabell gardens are some of the most elegantly arranged in Salzburg.

Designed in 1690, the gardens are famed for their perfectly proportioned layout—a blend of long straight walkways, intricate curving beds and carefully manicured boxwood hedges. The gardens are kept simple and open, all-the-better to present their central focus, the Pegasus Fountain, and to draw the eye to the drama of Salzburg's massive castle on the hill, the Festung Hohensalzburg, at the bottom of the garden.

In contrast to its formal layout, wandering around you'll find many playful features. There's the Hedge Theatre, created in the early 1700s, one of the oldest hedge theatres in northern Europe. And the Dwarf Garden presents a number of deformed and grotesque marble statues, installed under Archbishop Franz Anton Harrach—and allegedly modelled on people he knew.

The Mirabell Palace is now the official office of the Mayor of Salzburg, but parts of the building are open to the public. The Marble Hall is one of the most splendid, a ballroom for the Prince Archbishops, and the place where Leopold Mozart (and his children Wolfgang and Nannerl) first performed—associating the name of Mozart with 'genius' forever. It now hosts classical concerts, and is known as the 'most beautiful wedding hall in the world'.

But the place that no bride can miss being photographed on is the Marble Staircase. This gorgeous Baroque stairwell was very nearly lost in the fire of 1818. But its flowing sculpted marble balustrade, and cheeky cherubs survived to suggest the other Baroque glories that the palace once housed.