Danube River Cruise #22: Vienna's 10 Mozart Attractions

Mozart monument

In this 22nd blog about our Danube River Cruise trip in May, 2019, we're still in Vienna and we'll explore the 10 Mozart attractions in the city (even though we only saw a few in the driving, cold rain). We'll also tell you how Mozart wound up in Vienna, Austria. Read on !

HOW MOZART WOUND UP VIENNA - According to Visiting Vienna.com,
Back in 1781, Mozart wandered into Vienna’s Deutschordenshaus, where his boss (the Archbishop of Salzburg) was staying, argueda lot and got fired.
He decided to stay in the city as a freelance composer, musician, and teacher, and so a legendary partnership began

10 MOZART ATTRACTIONS IN VIENNA
1) Schoenbrunn Palace. Mozart presented his first concert at the age of six before Empress Maria Theresa at the Hall of Mirrors.
2) Hofburg Palace - Mozart aged 12, again performed for Empress Maria at the magnificent Hofburg Palace, the Habsburg’s winter residence
3) Mozart Monument- in 1896 a grand statue of Mozart was erected inside the Hofburg Palace grounds. It was moved to the Burggarten park in 1953. It’s one of Vienna’s best photo motifs, thanks to the musical symbol written out in flowers in front of the monument.

Mozartwohnung - one of Mozart's residences

4) Stephansdom - Mozart married here in 1782, his children were baptized there. After his death in 1791, his body was blessed in the chapel inside.
5) State Opera House - Completed in 1869 after his death, but opened with the performance of his famous Don Giovanni.
6) Mozart Museum also called "Mozartwohnung" - Now a museum, his former residence at Domgasse 5 was where he occupied the first-floor apartment between 1784 and 1787. Here he composed The Marriage of Figaro. 
This building in Vienna's Old Town, not far from St. Stephen's Cathedral, is his only surviving Viennese residence and is now a museum .  
7) Cafe Frauenhuber - Mozart performed here and other cafes after his concerts were no longer selling out in 1787.
8) Rauhensteingasse  - Former site of his last house where he spent final years (now a department store). He started his unfinished Requiem here

Mozart's grave at St. Marx Cemetery

Source: Wikimedia

9) St. Marx Cemetery/Mozart's Grave - The maestro’s final resting place was in an unmarked grave. Contrary to legend, he wasn’t dumped in some pauper’s mass was an unmarked one. However, there is a memorial on the grave now.

10) Mozart shops - Many in Vienna that sell his music, statues, ,key rings, coffee mugs, glasses . There are Mozart chocolates also, shaped like a violin, guitar and piano.


  NEXT:  Strauss and Vienna's Famous Street 
Then: The Opera House of 2 Odd Deaths