Salzburg's Altstadt is UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Baroque architecture that prince-archbishops built concentrated in a compact area beneath the fortress. The Getreidegasse that holds Mozart's birthplace is the main shopping street, its wrought-iron guild signs representing traditions that tourism has preserved for commercial rather than functional reasons. The squares that open off the narrow streets - the Residenzplatz, the Dom platz, the Mozart platz - provide the civic spaces that Baroque urbanism required.

The old town is dense with churches whose interiors display Baroque extravagance - the Cathedral with its three domes, the Collegiate Church with its Bernini-influenced facade, the Franciscan Church whose nave predates the Baroque additions. The churches are active places of worship, the religious function that built them continuing alongside the tourism that funds their preservation. The old town is walkable in hours but rewards days of exploration.

The Hohensalzburg Fortress crowns the Festungsberg, the hill that overlooks the old town, its white walls visible from everywhere in the city. The fortress began in 1077 and was expanded over five centuries, becoming the largest fully preserved fortress in Central Europe. The prince-archbishops who built it intended it as refuge rather than residence; the funicular that now carries visitors began as a way to supply the garrison.

The fortress rewards the climb - the views over the old town and toward the Alps, the state rooms where archbishops entertained, the torture chamber where they disciplined. The museum collections document the history that the walls witnessed; the concerts that the rooms now host continue the cultural tradition that Salzburg claims. The fortress is the city's dominant landmark, the reference point that orients all navigation.

Mozart was born in Salzburg on January 27, 1756, in a building on the Getreidegasse that is now museum and pilgrimage site. His relationship with Salzburg was complicated - he worked here for the prince-archbishop, chafed under provincial constraints, departed for Vienna where he achieved greatness and died in poverty. Salzburg claims Mozart with an intensity that his departure might not warrant; the city that couldn't hold him now won't let him go.

The Mozart industry pervades Salzburg - the Mozartkugeln chocolate balls that every shop sells, the Mozart concerts that every hotel promotes, the Mozart statues and plaques and names that fill public space. The Mozart Week festival in January brings serious music; the Salzburg Festival in summer attracts opera lovers who pay premium prices. Mozart is Salzburg's brand; the brand building began before modern marketing existed.

The Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg and its surroundings from April to May 1964, the locations that the von Trapp family used in fiction becoming pilgrimage sites for the film's devoted fans. The tours that visit Leopoldskron Palace (exterior of the von Trapp house), the gazebo where Liesl and Rolf danced, and Mondsee Abbey where the wedding was filmed operate daily, their buses full of visitors singing along to soundtracks.

The Sound of Music tourism is almost entirely American - the film was less successful in Europe, and Austrians largely find the phenomenon puzzling. The tours that cater to American nostalgia, the shows that perform the songs, the merchandise that celebrates the film - these represent cultural export reimported as tourism. The hills around Salzburg are genuinely beautiful; whether they are alive with music depends on the observer.

The Salzburg Festival is one of the world's premier music and drama festivals, founded in 1920 by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Richard Strauss, and Max Reinhardt, attracting audiences who pay prices that reflect the prestige the festival has earned. The performances happen in venues throughout the city - the Grosses Festspielhaus carved into the cliff face, the Felsenreitschule in a former riding school, the various theaters and churches that host smaller productions.

The festival transforms Salzburg each summer, the visitors it attracts different from the day-trippers who come year-round. The evening dress that festival protocol expects, the intermission gatherings where audience members assess each other, the reviews that determine reputations - these belong to a cultural world that tourism has not diluted. The festival is what Salzburg aspires to be, the high culture that Mozart's name invokes and that tourism elsewhere compromises.