Description of the attraction
The Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter is located in the historic center of Salzburg, at the very foot of the Mönchsberg mountain. It was founded in 690 by one of the first city bishops - Rupert, who later became the patron saint of Salzburg. Until 1110, the abbey housed the residence of the archbishops. This monastery is still operating, but some parts of the monastery complex are open for tourist visits, including the main church of St. Peter.
The Abbey of St. Peter is a complex of buildings from the 17th-18th centuries with three courtyards and the main monastery church of St. Peter. It was built back in 1143, but was heavily rebuilt simultaneously with the construction of the main monastery buildings. Now the cathedral is made in the Baroque style, it is especially worth noting two graceful domes crowning the cathedral itself and its high bell tower.
Inside, the church of St. Peter is decorated with luxurious stucco molding and unusual ornaments in the form of shells. This is a rather spacious temple, as there are 17 altars inside it, including the main one, on which the master from Krems, Martin Johann Schmidt, worked in a mixed Baroque and Rococo style. In general, the interior of the church was completely finished at the end of the 18th century.
In the right nave of the cathedral in 1444, the relics of the patron saint of Salzburg, St. Rupert, and also St. Vitaly, were solemnly reburied. Still inside the Cathedral of St. Peter, Mozart's sister Maria Anna and the brother of the composer Joseph Haydn, Johann Michael, are buried.
The Abbey of St. Peter adjoins Mount Mönchsberg, in the sheer wall of which the ancient catacombs are still preserved, where the early Christians lived more than a thousand years ago. There is also a tiny ancient cemetery, which is the oldest in all of Salzburg. Here you can find unusual old tombstones and monuments dating from 1288 and 1300.
