The sounds of music have been the key to Salzburg's success. But long before the Von Trapp family were shaking their booties on Salzburg's picturesque hilltops, one of the world's most influential composers was making music about some of his favourite things. Salzburg, the city that gave Wolfgang Mozart scant encouragement when he was alive, now can't get enough of him or the yearly influx of well-heeled music lovers his music brings.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg to a musician father in 1756. Six years later, little Wolfgang was playing his first royal concert in Vienna for the Austrian royal family. By the time he was eight, he'd toured London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Frankfurt and the Hague. He only lived to be 35, but in that time he composed 626 pieces including 24 operas, 41 symphonies and over 40 concertos. Praise for his music came from many quarters - Haydn believed him to be the 'greatest composer' and Schubert effused that the 'magic of Mozart's music lights the darkness of our lives'. In other words, Mozart was, y'know, good.

Skip forward two centuries and modern day Salzburg is a veritable museum to Mozart's achievements. A musical pilgrimage to Salzburg includes a visit to Mozart's birthplace, his home, the grave of his father and widow, and the house of a person who once knew someone who knew someone whose great-great grandfather once played second bassoon in a Mozart opera. You can buy Mozart Balls (small spheres made of chocolate wrapped in swisho paper and with a pic of Wolfie on them) at every corner, and it seems every second street is named after him (there are 16 streets in relatively small Salzburg with the name Mozart or Wolfgang in them).

Mozart is to Austria what Elvis once was to Vegas baby Vegas. Combined with the breathtaking beauty of Salzburg - located within the spectacular valleys and mountains of Austria's Alpine region, and possessing a spectacular architectural heritage - Mozart is quite a draw-card. If you get lucky, you might even hear some of his music.

Salzburg has managed to preserve an extraordinarily rich urban fabric, developed over the period from the Middle Ages to the 19th century when it was a city-state ruled by a prince-archbishop. Its Flamboyant Gothic art attracted many craftsmen and artists before the city became even better known through the work of the Italian architects Vincenzo Scamozzi and Santini Solari, to whom the centre of Salzburg owes much of its Baroque appearance. This meeting-point of northern and southern Europe perhaps sparked the genius of Salzburg's most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose name has been associated with the city ever since.

The Historic Centre of Salzburg was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1996