St. Sebastian Church and Cemetery, Salzburg

The original Catholic church of Saint Sebastian in Salzburg was built between 1505 and 1512. What stands in its place now is the 18th-century remake by Austrian architect and stuccoist, Kassian Singer, dating from 1749-1753. The building features Late Baroque style with some Rococo elements, including the magnificent portal and impressive gate separating the entrance porch from the main nave. The high altar is adorned with a wonderful Madonna with Child, created in 1611.

In 1818 the church was ravaged by fire that consumed a beautiful ceiling fresco and the high altar painting by Paul Troger. During the ensued restoration, the charred Baroque paintings were replaced and the Sebastian relief, made by Konrad Asper between 1614 and 1620, was added to the outer façade.

***Mozart Walking Tour***
Given its proximity to their Wohnaus residence, the Mozart family often visited Saint Sebastian's for Catholic mass. Today, the mass here is still served entirely in Latin.

Many of the Mozarts are buried at the church's cemetery, including Wolfgang’s father Leopold and wife Constanze, his maternal grandmother Eva Rosina Pertl (1755), and Constanze’s second husband Georg Nikolaus Nissen (1826). Mozart’s two sisters-in-law, Aloysia Lange and Sophie Haibel, were also buried here but were later exhumed and re-buried at the Salzburg municipal cemetery.

The Saint Sebastian cemetery was designed by Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau between 1595 and 1600, inspired by the Italian Campo Santo (“sacred field”). In the middle of the central square, surrounded by arcades, is the brightly tiled mannerist mausoleum of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich himself. Since 1564, a passageway leading to the cemetery has also been home to the tomb of famous Swiss scientist and scholar Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known as "Paracelsus".

Tip:
Don't miss the amazing catacombs set high in the rocks!