Discover Salzburg in a weekend with Thaddeus Ropac
The well-known art dealer starts at one of the world's best-known music festivals and then moves on to Antiquariat Weinek, a walk on the Walk of Modern Art and a stop at the Blaue Gans to enjoy real Wienerschnitzel.
by Lisa Corva
Salzburg is not only the city where I live, and where I opened my first art gallery in 1983, now in Villa Kast in the Mirabell Gardens. It is the city where I have chosen to live, even though I was born in Carinthia. It is the city of the Salzburg Festival, the Salzburger Festspiele, an unmissable event not only for me, but for anyone who loves music, with concerts and operas performed for five weeks every summer, at Easter and Pentecost.
When I am in Salzburg (because my art galleries are also in London, Paris, Seoul; the last one opened, in autumn, is in Milan, at Palazzo Belgioioso) I always pass by the Café Bazar, in true Viennese Secession style, with more than a hundred years of history. Since then, it has become a place where, on the days of the Festival - which was founded in 1920 - you can always meet someone well-known. Once Hugo von Hofmannsthal - one of the promoters of these musical events, along with Richard Strauss - or Marlene Dietrich, today Cecilia Bartoli or Riccardo Muti. I always accompany my coffee or cappuccino with a dessert. I recommend their Apfelstrudel, although I prefer, when in season, the cherry one. The Sacher, on the other hand, must be taken strictly at Café Sacher.
For lunch, if it's for a classic Wienerschnitzel, with a side of Preiselbeeren, the cranberry sauce, the best place is the Blaue Gans restaurant, right in front of the Grand Theatre of the Festival, also excellent for dinner. First, though, an aperitif at the Matteo Thun-designed M32 bar on the top of the Mönchsberg, inside the Museum of Modern Art, with a spectacular view of the city and also of the audience in evening dress coming out of the shows. My favourite drink is a Tequila Sour: I like the touch of lime. To those who ask me where to sleep, I always recommend the Townhouse Weisses Kreuz, a boutique hotel with six rooms designed by Axel Vervoordt, whose impeccable taste makes calling him an art dealer or interior designer an understatement. During the Festival, however, I love to invite guests to my Villa Emslieb: the pleasure of a pianist like Lang Lang playing piano in the baroque music room is priceless. Here I have welcomed some of the artists I represent, such as Georg Baselitz or Anselm Kiefer, Axel Katz or Elizabeth Peyton (who, yes, did a portrait of me!).
Salzburg for me is also Antiquariat Weinek, an antique bookshop where I look for first editions of my favourite Austrian writers, such as Stefan Zweig. Among his novels that I loved the most, definitely Letter from a Stranger and The World of Yesterday. Another favourite place is the historic Stiftsbäckerei St. Peter bakery, which is over seven hundred years old: the black bread, kneaded with sourdough, is sent to me even in London and Paris. Worth visiting in the city are the park and water features of Hellbrunn Castle, built in the early 17th century by the prince-bishop of Salzburg, Markus Sittikus. Another castle, Schloss Leopoldskron, was the residence of Max Reinhardt, the third of the founders of the Salzburg Festival. It is also a hotel and Toscanini used to stay here: his room was next to Marlene Dietrich's.
Beautiful churches: Salzburg was the seat of an archiepiscopal principality until 1803, when it was secularised as a Grand Duchy. It has only been Austria since 1814. And in fact I always remind my guests that Mozart, born in the city in 1756, is not exactly an Austrian artist. Of the hundreds of churches in the city, there are at least two: the baroque triumph of the Kollegienkirche, built in 1694 by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. Dazzling white and gold, it was disputed at the time, now it is considered a masterpiece. When I took Norman Foster there, he was speechless. Then there is Sankt Peter Abbey, with works by Anselm Kiefer, presented in June - a project I had the privilege of collaborating on: two large canvases dedicated to the martyrs Saint Apollonia and Saint Dorothea. This is one of the reasons why I love my work: to collaborate with great artists and forge friendships, such as with Kiefer and Baselitz, who have now made their home in the Salzburg countryside, but also with Robert Longo, Tony Cragg, Daniel Richter, Martha Jungwirth, Sean Scully, Antony Gormley. Or Sylvie Fleury, who in 2005 installed a permanent work on the facade of the Mozarteum (and designed the artist's pool in my villa).
