Schloss Hellbrunn
Day 4
"There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do."
~ Francois de la Rochefoucauld
In the 17th century, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg Markus Sittikus built himself this pleasure palace just outside the heart of the city. (The palace has an excellent website if you want more info.) The grounds and palace are lovely, but the real reason to go is to see the trick fountains. See, Marky Sitt installed a veritable panoply of fountains and architectural wonders specifically designed to mess with his guests. From a stone dining table with hoses inside the seats to deer heads that shoot water out their antlers, it's a wonder of medieval engineering - and the original mechanics are still in use!
This looks like a perfectly picturesque setting to enjoy an al fresco lunch with your noble friends, but...
The center of the table, and the holes in each of the seats, contain hidden jets that sprayed unsuspecting guests. Visitors nowadays are much more suspecting, and nobody besides me was willing to sit there! Can't imagine why. Eventually the guide had to badger another poor sap into it.
Neptune's Grotto. My favorite part was the impish little face towards the bottom of the fountain. With the movement of water, the tongue sticks out and the eyes roll up. Legend has it that Markus Sittikus installed it so that his own palace was literally making faces at his detractors.
What appeared to be just another mounted stag's head actually had streams of water shooting out of each prong on the antlers.
Just a cute little fountain. To be honest, I mostly liked the dogs.
The exit of this grotto looked like a simple and charming paved walkway, until the hidden jets are turned on and visitors are surprised with archways of water!
The Crown Grotto. A pretty little sculpture with turtles and other sea creatures, until...
The operator turns on the 400-year-old mechanics...
A comparatively late (1750s) addition to the gardens is this mechanical theatre, filled with over 150 figurines depicting a day in the life of a city at the time. Despite being over a century newer than the trick fountains, it still operates entirely on water power and hydromechanics.
And the crown begins to levitate!
(There were a couple young kids there while we were, and the operator was increasing and decreasing the water pressure to make it bounce up and down for them. I'm honestly not sure whether the kids or the operator were having more fun!)
Hellbrunn also has some beautiful grounds, including the gazebo where the "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" scene from "The Sound of Music" was filmed. Unfortunately we only had one day in Salzburg so we opted to head back into the city for souvenir shopping rather than continuing to explore. But we consoled ourselves that the palace has been there for 400 years - it'll be there when we get back!
This was the final fountain. Fun story; the man who'd operated the table at the start of our visit also happened to be there at the exit. He asked me if I got wet, which I said I did. Then he asked if my husband got wet, and I said "Not enough." He asked if I wanted to see one more trick fountain, and I said sure! Then he went over and leaned down to where the water is coming out of the mouth and splashed some good handfuls onto Jeff.
