Salzburg Photos: Kapitelschwemme

previous picture  return to "summer photos 2"   next picture

Kapitelschwemme Horse Well



This fountain is the Kapitelschwemme, a former horse well in front of the current archbishop's palace on Kapitelplatz Square. It looks a bit like a mini-version of the Trevi Fountain in Rome and is only one of many corners in which Salzburg resembles the Eternal City. No coincidence: Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, who ruled over Salzburg in the early 17th century and introduced major development plans to "upgrade" the Medieval city to a new version in playful Baroque, grew up in Rome. At the time of his childhood and youth, Baroque was more or less invented in Rome and Wolf Dietrich took the then new style to Salzburg - more or less directly from the source. His successors continued to invest Salzburg's wealth in ever new building projects and between approximately 1600 and 1750, the face of the city changed into what you see today. Because of the high number of Baroque churches, Salzburg is often called "The German Rome". This is of course a shameless exaggeration today, but was probably less exaggerated in the 17th or 18th century, when Rome was still a great deal smaller and Salzburg relatively more important. 

photo (c) visit-salzburg.net


Visit-Salzburg.net