St. Sebastian’s Cemetery in the city of Salzburg
Absolute silence in the middle of the city
In the middle of the right-hand side of Salzburg’s old town is a small patch of earth that is dead quiet as soon as you close the door behind you: St. Sebastian’s Cemetery. The impressive construction based on the Italian model of a Campo Santo attracts many visitors today.
Campo Santo - The Italian style
After the former cathedral cemetery had to make way for the Residenzplatz, Archbishop Wolf Dietrich had St. Sebastian’s Cemetery built on an old plague cemetery from the 15th century in the years 1595-1600.
At the time of construction, the so-called Campo Santo (Italian for sacred field) was particularly fashionable. The special feature of this Italian construction method: The cemetery is enclosed like a courtyard and surrounded by an archway. While the outer walls are kept very simple, visitors are greeted in the middle by the elaborately built mausoleum, the Gabriel Chapel, by Wolf Dietrich. Vaulted arcade walls and crypt niches also give St. Sebastian’s cemetery its special flair.
Famous deaths in Salzburg
Numerous aristocratic families have found their place in these crypt arcades. Salzburgers who were famous during their lifetime, but also far beyond, are also buried here:
- Leopold Mozart, father of W.A. Mozart
- Constanze Weber, widow of W.A. Mozart
- Theophrast von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus, physician and alchemist
