Steingasse

While tourists crowd Getreidegasse across the river, Steingasse sits in comparative quiet — which is ironic, because for most of Salzburg's history, this narrow lane on the east bank of the Salzach was the far more important street. This was the main medieval trade route to Italy, the road along which salt — Salzburg's founding commodity and the origin of its name — was transported south over the Alps. The lane is so narrow in places that two people can barely pass, and the buildings lean in overhead, creating a dim, atmospheric corridor that feels genuinely medieval.

At the southern end stands the Inneres Steintor, Salzburg's oldest surviving gate, built in 1280 and extended during the Thirty Years' War in 1634. Walk through it and you're stepping through a threshold that has been in continuous use for over seven centuries. The gate once marked the boundary of the city, and Steingasse was the road beyond — a place of craftspeople who needed water for their trades: butchers, potters, dyers, tanners. These were not the wealthy merchants of Getreidegasse. This was working-class Salzburg.

Joseph Mohr, who wrote the lyrics to "Silent Night" — the most-recorded Christmas song in history, translated into over 300 languages — was born on Steingasse in 1792. He was the illegitimate son of a seamstress, and since no respectable citizen would serve as godfather to an illegitimate child, his godfather was the town executioner. A memorial plaque marks what is believed to be his birthplace, though the actual house was destroyed in World War II and the plaque may be on the wrong building.

Today, Steingasse has quietly become one of Salzburg's most interesting bar streets, with small cocktail bars and wine caves tucked into medieval vaulted cellars. It is everything Getreidegasse isn't: dark, atmospheric, slightly rough around the edges, and all the better for it.