Salzburg’s Wunderkind – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – was born in what is known as the Hagenauer House at no. 9 Getreidegasse on the 27th January 1756. He lived there with his sister Nannerl and his parents until 1773. Mozart’s Geburtshaus now houses a museum open all year round.
Mozart’s Geburtshaus guides guests through the original rooms in which the Mozart family lived and presents a range of artefacts, including historical instruments, documents, keepsakes and mementos, and the majority of the portraits painted during his lifetime. One such example is the unfinished oil portrait painted by Mozart’s brother-in-law Joseph Lange in 1789 – ‘Wolfgang Amade Mozart at the piano’. Among the most famous exhibits are Mozart’s childhood violin, his clavichord, portraits and letters belonging to the Mozart family.
References:Tyniec Benedictine abbey was founded by King Casimir the Restorer probably around 1044. Casimir decided to rebuild the newly established Kingdom of Poland, after a Pagan rebellion and a disastrous Czech raid of Duke Bretislaus I (1039). The Benedictines, invited to Tyniec by the King, were tasked with restoring order as well as cementing the position of the State and the Church. First Tyniec Abbot was Aaron, who became the Bishop of Kraków. Since there is no conclusive evidence to support the foundation date as 1040, some historians claim that the abbey was founded by Casimir the Restorer’ son, King Boleslaw II the Generous.
In the second half of the 11th century, a complex of Romanesque buildings was completed, consisting of a basilica and the abbey. In the 14th century, it was destroyed in Tatar and Czech raids, and in the 15th century it was rebuilt in Gothic style. Further remodelings took place in the 17th and 18th centuries, first in Baroque, then in Rococo style. The abbey was partly destroyed in the Swedish invasion of Poland, and soon afterwards was rebuilt, with a new library. Further destruction took place during the Bar Confederation, when Polish rebels turned the abbey into their fortress.
In 1816, Austrian authorities liquidated the abbey, and in 1821-1826, it was the seat of the Bishop of Tyniec, Grzegorz Tomasz Ziegler. The monks, however, did not return to the abbey until 1939, and in 1947, remodelling of the neglected complex was initiated. In 1968, the Church of St. Peter and Paul was once again named the seat of the abbot. The church itself consists of a Gothic presbytery and a Baroque main nave. Several altars were created by an 18th-century Italian sculptor Francesco Placidi. The church also has a late Baroque pulpit by Franciszek Jozef Mangoldt.