Salzburg Cathedral

This cathedral has been built, burned, destroyed, and rebuilt so many times that its current incarnation — the magnificent Baroque structure you see today — is essentially version four. The first cathedral was constructed by Saint Vergilius around 774, and it was enormous for its time: 66 metres long. That building burned in 1167 when the city was torched during a feud between the Emperor and the Pope. The replacement burned again in 1598. Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, never one for half-measures, decided to demolish what was left and start from scratch.

The result, designed by Italian architect Santino Solari and completed in 1628, was the first Baroque cathedral north of the Alps. Its marble facade, flanked by two towers and crowned with a green copper dome, announced to the world that Salzburg's prince-archbishops had money, taste, and absolutely no interest in Protestant austerity. The interior seats 10,000 people and is 101 metres long — a space designed to overwhelm, and it succeeds.

Mozart was baptised in this cathedral on January 28, 1756, the day after his birth. The bronze baptismal font from 1321 still stands in the church, making it nearly five hundred years older than the building around it. Every summer since 1920, the cathedral's facade has served as the backdrop for performances of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Jedermann during the Salzburg Festival — the play that launched the world's most prestigious classical music festival.

In 1944, a single American bomb crashed through the central dome, leaving a gaping hole above the crossing. Restoration took until 1959, and the rebuilt dome is slightly different from the original — a quiet scar from a war that touched even the most sacred spaces.