The Most Beautiful Places in Salzburg
6 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Salzburg are Eisriesenwelt, Krimml Waterfalls and Bad Gastein. The list covers 6 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
The state of Salzburg runs from the Alpine foothills around its capital deep into the High Tauern, the highest part of the Austrian Alps. Limestone massifs in the north are riddled with caves, while the granite and gneiss of the Tauern feed powerful glacier streams that cut gorges and falls on their way to the Salzach. For centuries the region was ruled by prince-archbishops whose wealth came largely from salt, and their city on the Salzach became a capital of Baroque architecture and music.
Above the old town of Salzburg rises Hohensalzburg Fortress, begun in the 11th century and enlarged into one of the largest preserved castles in Central Europe. Below it, the narrow Getreidegasse is lined with tall burgher houses and wrought-iron shop signs; Mozart was born at number 9.
The mountains hold the rest. Near Werfen, Eisriesenwelt is the largest known ice cave in the world, its entrance halls lined with frozen formations inside the Hochkogel. The Krimml Waterfalls, the highest in Austria, fall in three stages through forest at the edge of the High Tauern. The Liechtensteinklamm near St. Johann im Pongau is a deep, narrow gorge with walkways over rushing water. In the Gastein valley, Bad Gastein stacks Belle Époque hotels on a steep slope around a waterfall in the middle of the town, a spa built on thermal springs.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eisriesenwelt | Ice cave | |
| 2 | Krimml Waterfalls | Waterfall | |
| 3 | Bad Gastein | Spa town | |
| 4 | Hohensalzburg Fortress | Fortress | |
| 5 | Liechtensteinklamm | Canyon | |
| 6 | Getreidegasse, Salzburg | Pedestrian street |
01 Eisriesenwelt
Austria · 36 km from Salzburg47.503° N 13.190° E
Image by dirgiS22 from Pixabay In 1879, a Salzburg naturalist named Anton von Posselt-Czorich became the first documented person to enter this cave above the Salzach valley.
Did you know? Von Mörk was killed in the First World War at the age of 27, and his urn rests above a passage inside the cave.
02 Krimml Waterfalls
Krimmler Wasserfälle
Austria47.198° N 12.171° E
Image by 2780243 from Pixabay In the Hohe Tauern mountains of the Austrian state of Salzburg, the Krimmler Ache leaves its high glacial valley by throwing itself over a rock wall in three great leaps. Together they drop about 380 metres, which makes the Krimml Waterfalls the highest in Austria.
Did you know? About 12 percent of the river's 110 square kilometre catchment is covered by glaciers, which is why its flow swings so sharply through the day and the year.
03 Bad Gastein
Austria47.115° N 13.136° E
Image by Separatus from Pixabay Bad Gastein is a spa town that looks like a small city clinging to a cliff. It sits at about 1,000 m in the Gastein Valley of the Hohe Tauern, and its centre was built around a waterfall: the Gasteiner Ache drops about 340 m in three steps straight through the middle of town, spanned by a stone bridge of 1840.
Did you know? Franz Schubert stayed here in August 1825, a visit associated with his Great C major Symphony.
04 Hohensalzburg Fortress
Festung Hohensalzburg
Austria · 1.8 km from Salzburg47.795° N 13.047° E
Image by PaulAzorcan from Pixabay Hohensalzburg Fortress covers the whole top of the Festungsberg, 506 metres above sea level, and at about 250 by 150 metres it is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.
Did you know? The fortress's only siege, in 1525, lasted from 5 July to 31 August, and the rebel peasants and miners never broke in.
05 Liechtensteinklamm
Austria47.311° N 13.191° E
Image by Michelle-Maria from Pixabay The Liechtensteinklamm is one of the deepest and narrowest gorges in the Alps: a cleft up to 300 metres deep that the mountain stream Großarler Ache has cut through the rock on its way out of the Großarl valley.
Did you know? The gorge has always blocked traffic into the Großarl valley, so the road has had to climb around it on the slopes to the east.
06 Getreidegasse, Salzburg
Getreidegasse
Austria · 1.2 km from Salzburg47.800° N 13.043° E
Image by alsen from Pixabay Getreidegasse is Salzburg's oldest trading street and one of the most atmospheric shopping lanes in the Alps. It runs through the Old Town beneath the cliffs of the Mönchsberg, lined with tall, narrow townhouses standing shoulder to shoulder.
Did you know? The future German Social Democrat leader August Bebel served part of his apprenticeship as a turner at No. 3 in 1859–1860.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Salzburg?
- On our list, Eisriesenwelt ranks first, followed by Krimml Waterfalls and Bad Gastein.
- What is the largest ice cave in the world?
- Eisriesenwelt near Werfen in Salzburg is considered the largest known ice cave. Its passages run for about 42 kilometres inside the Hochkogel, though ice forms only in the section near the entrance.
- What is the highest waterfall in Austria?
- The Krimml Waterfalls in the High Tauern, with a total drop of about 380 metres in three tiers.
- Where was Mozart born?
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756 at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg, in a house that is now a museum.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Salzburg?
- In our collection, the places in Salzburg are most often canyons and gorges (1), caves (1), show caves (1) and waterfalls (1).
- How many places are on this list in Salzburg?
- The list covers 6 places.