View of Salzburg from Maria Plain

Just as the principality was about to lose its independence through the Napoleonic Wars, around 1800 the Romantics discovered Salzburg as a rewarding motif for painting. The town was still surrounded by fortifications dating from the Thirty Years’ War. Hardly any building was done outside the walls. Travellers were delighted by the charming, unspoilt landscape and the archiepiscopal baroque town full of mediaeval monuments, set against a dramatic mountain background.
Castell chose a favourite standpoint for a view of Salzburg: the Plainberg with the pilgrimage basilica of Maria Plain. He portrays the wide river plain before the town gates with trees, bushes, meadows, woods, a herd of cattle with herdsmen, and a traveller. Fortress and Mönchsberg form a backdrop, with the mighty massifs of the Hoher Göll and the Untersberg towering behind.

HABERSATTER Thomas: Blick auf Salzburg/Focus on Salzburg, in: DUCKE Astrid, HABERSATTER Thomas (Hrsg./Edited): Stadt ∙ Land ∙ Berg. Salzburg und seine Umgebung. Town ∙ Landscape ∙ Mountain. Salzburg and surroundings. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2022, S./p. 30-31