Salzburg is known throughout the world as a festival city and for its historic Old City, which nestles within an impressive landscape. With a population of 140,000, the city is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from all corners of the globe every year. UEFA EURO 2008™ will represent the culmination of a whole series of successful major sporting events held in Salzburg.
Salzburg lies on very old settlement territory. This can be proved by prehistoric discoveries which stretch back to the Neolithic age. The extraction of salt at Dürnberg bei Hallein, and the related trade, led in the Hallstatt age (approx. 1000-450 BC) to a well-populated settlement. In the Roman age, Salzburg (Juvavum) under Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD) received municipal status as a city.
The modern-day face of Salzburg, with its baroque Old City, emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries, as the bishops Wolf Dietrich, Markus Sittikus und Paris Lodron left their mark on the city through intensive building work. More than 100 churches, castles and palaces continue today to show the power of the archbishops in Salzburg.
On 27 January 1756, the city’s most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born as the seventh child of Leopold Mozart and his wife, who came from St Gilgen near Salzburg, Anna Maria Walpurga. Between 1747 and 1773, the family lived in a house at Getreidegasse No.9. The apartment is now a museum. The most renowned exhibition pieces are, among other things, the violin that Mozart played as a child, his concert violin, the piano forte, portraits and letters.
It was in 1816 that Salzburg – in its capacity as a new crown land – became part of Habsburg Austria. At the beginning of the 20th century, the founding of the festival gave Salzburg new impetus, which affects the cultural life in the city even today. The artistic programme for the festival, which takes place nowadays from the end of July to the end of August, involves no less than 38 festival days and some 180 concerts in eleven different venues.
In the years after the Second World War, Salzburg developed into one of Austria’s most important trade cities and has become one of the most visited tourist centres. The film 'Sound of Music' – with Julie Andrews in the leading role – was filmed in Salzburg in 1964. It was a resounding success: ten Oscar nominations, almost 1,500 Broadway performances as a musical, six Tony awards and more than three million albums sold. Salzburg became a UNESCO World Heritage Centre on 1 January 1997.
The new stadium is in Wals-Siezenheim, bordering on Salzburg - the city of Mozart.
The stadium was inaugurated in March 2003 with a capacity of 18,686. It will eventually have 30,000 covered seats after a transformation project - this means it will meet the necessary criteria for staging the UEFA EURO 2008™ finals, as well as complying with the UEFA guidelines on construction of football stadia.
The stadium site, comprising 15 hectares, is located right next to Salzburg airport, has a direct link to the motorway and is due have its own stop on the Salzburg-Munich railway line. The stadium site is planned to include a fully-fledged recreational park, with a variety of leisure facilities such as fitness trails, recreation zones, playgrounds, restaurants.
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