Hellbrunn Palace & Trick Fountains

Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus built Hellbrunn between 1612 and 1615 as a summer pleasure palace, and in a detail that tells you everything about his personality, he deliberately included no bedrooms. This was purely a day palace for entertaining guests — the Archbishop always returned to the city at night. What he did include were the most elaborate practical jokes in European architectural history.

The trick fountains are Sittikus's masterpiece of mischief. He would invite guests to dine at a stone table in the gardens, and midway through the meal, hidden water jets would drench everyone at the table. Everyone except Sittikus himself, who always occupied the one dry seat. Four centuries later, tour guides still gleefully soak visitors at the same table using the same mechanism. The entire hydraulic system runs on natural spring pressure from the Hellbrunn mountain — no electric pumps, no modern technology. The same gravity-fed system that operated in the 1610s powers every jet, grotto, and mechanical figure on the grounds today.

The water-powered mechanical theatre, added in 1750 by Lorenz Rosenegger, features 163 tiny figures depicting life in a small Baroque town — hammering, sawing, marching, working — all powered entirely by water. Grottos adorned with shells, mirrors, and coloured stones house mythological scenes featuring Neptune, Diana, and other classical figures, all rendered in the Mannerist style that was already slightly old-fashioned when Sittikus built them. He didn't care. He wanted to impress and amuse, and he succeeded.

The Sound of Music gazebo was relocated here from Leopoldskron Palace after too many tourists injured themselves recreating the "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" dance scene. It sits in the park now, behind glass, which tells you everything about the intersection of romance and liability insurance.