CREDITS THE SOUND OF MUSIC, 1965 dir: Robert Wise Julie Andrews Christopher Plummer Peggy Wood Eleanor Parker Richard Haydn

“Do you mean to tell me that my children have been roaming about Salzburg dressed up in nothing but some old drapes?”

The phenomenally successful Rodgers and Hammerstein musical was shot on lots of real locations around Salzburg, Austria, though plenty more were recreated in the 20th Century-Fox studios in Hollywood.

The opening aerial shots are Salzburg’s glorious Lake District, the Salzkammergut. The castles are Fuchsl, 12 miles east of Salzburg on the Fuchslee, clearest of the Salzkammergut lakes, and Schloss Anif, off E55 a few miles south of Salzburg.

The mountain, atop which Maria (Julie Andrews) makes her first twirling appearance, is Mellweg, near the Bavarian village of Schellenberg, about six miles from Salzburg. Don’t be too disappointed – the birch trees were added for the movie and the babbling brook specially dug.

The Sound of Music location: Maria’s abbey: Nonnberg Abbey, Nonnberg Gasse, Salzburg

Convent interiors were recreated in the studio, but the exterior really is Maria’s abbey. It’s Nonnberg Abbey, Nonnberg Gasse, where you can visit the courtyard and peek into the chapel. The film cheats a little. The abbey looks out not to the picturesque old town of Salzburg, but to the nondescript southern suburbs. The reverse shot, of Maria leaving the abbey, filmed way across the city on the Winkler Terrace (where the Do Re Mi number later begins).

The Sound of Music location: the view 'from' the abbey: Winkler Terrace, looking over Salzburg toward Nonnberg Abbey

As Maria leaves to take up her post with the Von Trapp family, I Have Confidence in Me was filmed in Salzburg’s Old Town, in the Residenzplatz, where youíll see the Domplatz arches, through which Maria enters, and the Residenz Fountain, in which she splashes.

The Sound of Music location: Maria splashes in the Residenzbrunner on her way to the Von Trapp house: Residenzplatz, Salzburg

The ‘Villa Von Trapp’ is a combination of two Salzburg locations. The tree-shaded lane, where Maria alights from the bus, is Hellbrunner Allee, running south from the old town. Here you’ll recognise Schloss Frohnburg, a 17th century country house, now the Mozarteum Music Academy, which was used for the intimidating gates and front entrance of the villa.

The Sound of Music location: Maria arrives at the Von Trapp mansion: Hellbrunner Allee, Salzburg

The lakeside terrace was filmed at Schloss Leopoldskron, a rococo castle on Leopoldskroner Teich, a small artificial lake on the southwest of the town. Now a private college, you can see Leopoldskron across the lake from K–nig Ludwig Strasse.

The Sound of Music location: the rear, lakeside terrace, of the ‘Von Trappí mansion: Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg

The real Villa Trapp, by the way, is in Aigen, 30 miles northwest of Linz in the very north of Austria near the German and Czech borders.

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