Ever since the film of The Sound of Music was released 50 years ago, fans from around the world have flocked to Salzburg. The palace Schloss Leopoldskron is inundated with musical fans. Though the real von Trapp family never resided there, a gazebo on the grounds was indeed used as a filming location. Replicas of the palace’s terrace and Venetian Room further established the connection between the lakeside palace and the musical adaptation of the von Trapp family’s story.
The palace is just one of a number of tourist sites in the area – fans also go to visit the Mirabell Gardens, where the seven von Trapp children sing Do Re Mi in the film, and Nonnberg Abbey, where the actual Maria Kutschera married Baron von Trapp in 1927.
So Austrian history and American musicals meld in Salzburg. This is no better illustrated than by an Austrian Christmas egg ornament featuring a hand-painted Julie Andrews in all her Maria splendour, ready to twirl through an alpine meadow.
Die Trapp Familie
The real-life aspiring nun/teacher Maria was an enterprising woman. Following her marriage to the former naval captain von Trapp (and the birth of three more von Trapps), she worked hard to create a public image for the Trapp Family Singers. The family, struggling financially, had begun touring through Europe as a singing group in 1935. They eventually emigrated to the United States and settled in Vermont.
