SALZBURG, Austria — An Austrian museum has opened dedicated to “The Sound of Music,” becoming the first-ever venue devoted to the classic 1965 film starring Julie Andrews, reports BritPanorama.
The Sound of Music Salzburg museum, located in a city renowned for its musical heritage and the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was inaugurated on Sunday.
The opening was attended by Elisabeth von Trapp, granddaughter of Georg and Agathe von Trapp, whose family’s story inspired the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical and the subsequent Hollywood adaptation. She continues to offer guided tours of filming locations in Salzburg to this day.
“It is intimate enough so you really have a beautiful sense of the storyline of both the Sound of Music and the Trapp family singers — my relatives. I’m very proud of that,” von Trapp remarked about the new museum.
Her father, Werner, was among the original Trapp Family Singers, although audiences recognize his character by a different name in the film. “My father is depicted in the movie as Kurt; his name was Werner von Trapp. Just to set the record straight,” she clarified.
Set within the 17th-century Hellbrunn Palace, where numerous film scenes were filmed, the museum carefully delineates the actual von Trapp family’s narrative from that of the 1959 Broadway musical and later cinematic portrayal.
The story unfolds against the backdrop of Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938, focusing on Maria, a governess who teaches music to the seven von Trapp children before falling in love with their widowed father, Georg von Trapp.
Museum officials emphasize that the real Georg von Trapp, a submarine commander in the Austro-Hungarian navy, was portrayed inaccurately as a “strict paternalist” by Christopher Plummer’s character in the film; instead, he was described as “a considerate, albeit much-burdened, father.”
Visitors to the museum can view nearly 450 artifacts, including props and costumes from the movie, cinema posters, and music recordings. A particular highlight is the gazebo, where Liesl von Trapp and her suitor Rolf perform the duet “Sixteen going on Seventeen.”
The film, which garnered five Academy Awards including Best Picture, has drawn numerous fans to Salzburg, with several hundred thousand tourists visiting the city annually.
John and Terry Combs, a couple from Dayton, Ohio, joined von Trapp on her walking tour through Salzburg. “I love the combination of it being much about the movie, of course, but about the real von Trapp family, which I’ve read much about over the years,” Terry Combs noted. “And having met and known Elisabeth a little bit — it just brought it full circle.”
The museum is open daily until November 1. Following a brief farewell to visitors this year, it is set to reopen next March.
