Hotel Sacher Salzburg

The Salzach divides Salzburg, and the grand hotel stands on the right bank at Schwarzstrasse 5, where the Makartsteg footbridge lands and the whole of the old town, from the cathedral domes to the Hohensalzburg fortress, lines up across the water. Hotel Sacher Salzburg has had that view since 1866, when it opened as the Hôtel d'Autriche. The name on the façade changed twice; the position never did.

History

Carl Freiherr von Schwarz, the engineer and investor after whom the street is named, built the hotel in 1866 on land along the newly regulated river. It became the Österreichischer Hof, the Austrian Court, and for a century it was the address of the Salzburg Festival, lodging conductors, singers and the audience that followed them each summer after the festival's founding in 1920. In 1988 the Gürtler family, owners of the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, bought the Österreichischer Hof and renamed it Hotel Sacher Salzburg, bringing the Sacher-Torte and the Viennese café tradition to the Salzach. The hotel has stayed in the family and is run with its Vienna sister as a private company.

Architecture and design

The building is a five-storey block in the manner of the Ringstrasse hotels, with a stone ground floor, regular window bays and a mansard roof, extended along the quay in later decades. Its interiors are traditional in the Sacher idiom: red damask, oil paintings in gilt frames, parquet and crystal, with a large collection of art accumulated by the family. The ground-floor terrace along the river is the hotel's best room in summer. A spa and a fitness area were added on the top floor with views towards the Mönchsberg.

Rooms and suites

There are 110 rooms and suites, no two alike, decorated with antiques, fabrics in the Sacher red and green, and original art. Rooms on the river side look at the old town and the fortress; those at the back face the Mirabell quarter. The suites on the upper floors, several named after Salzburg Festival artists, have balconies over the Salzach.

Dining

Café Sacher Salzburg, with a terrace on the river, serves the Original Sacher-Torte and Viennese coffee house dishes all day. The Zirbelzimmer, panelled in Swiss pine, is the formal restaurant for Austrian cooking; the Roter Salon serves the same kitchen in a red-damask room, and the Salzachgrill offers grills and fish with the river view. The Sacher Bar is the late evening room. The pastry kitchen makes the cakes on site.

Wellness

The Sacher Boutique Spa on the top floor has a sauna, a steam bath, a fitness room and treatment rooms with views over the roofs of the old town. There is no pool.

Weddings and events

The hotel has three function rooms on the ground and first floors used for weddings, festival receptions and meetings, the largest with windows towards the river. Wedding ceremonies take place at the Mirabell palace a few streets away, with the reception at the hotel; the Sacher-Torte often stands in for a wedding cake. Meetings of up to a few dozen people use the smaller salons.

Location

The hotel stands between the Makartsteg and the Staatsbrücke, opposite the old town, with Mozart's residence on Makartplatz behind it and the Mirabell gardens five minutes north. The Festspielhaus is across the river, ten minutes on foot. Salzburg's main station is two kilometres north and the airport five kilometres west. For a luxury hotel in Salzburg during the festival weeks, the terrace of the Sacher is the place where the city's musical life passes by.