Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg

Squeezed between the Salzach River and its fortress-topped hill, Salzburg's old town owes its skyline of domes and spires to the prince-archbishops who ruled it as an independent city-state and brought in Italian architects — Vincenzo Scamozzi, then Santini Solari — to give the north a taste of the Baroque. Gothic fabric survives beneath the theatrical ensemble, and in 1756 the city produced its most celebrated son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. UNESCO inscribed the historic centre in 1996.