Hunting lodges are there for hunting, residences to live in and to govern from – but what is actually a pleasure palace? Quite simply, a place for celebration, for pleasure and recuperation – a representative holiday domicile with a park and trick fountains. Pleasure palaces were highly fashionable around 1615. Little has changed at Hellbrunn in over 400 years, except that in earlier times pleasure was reserved for archbishops such as Markus Sittikus. Everyone can stroll through the park nowadays, take pleasure in the trick fountains and celebrate in the palace.

The power of archbishop Markus Sittikus reached far beyond Salzburg. He ruled a region from Carinthia in the south to Regensburg in the north. But why did he have Hellbrunn built in only three years? Well, it was simply his love of life. The interactive permanent exhibition “GrandDelight – The unexpected world of Markus Sittikus” conveys the castle and its history in a refreshingly different way – just as the prince-archbishop would have liked.