Gardens of Mirabell Palace, Salzburg Austria

Mirabell Palace is a historical building in the city of Salzburg, Austria. The palace with its gardens is a listed cultural heritage monument and part of the Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built about 1606 outside the medieval walls of Salzburg according to Italian and French models, at the behest of Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau as a residence for his mistress Salome Alt. When Raitenau was deposed and arrested in 1612, Alt and her family were expelled and the palace received its current name from Italian: mirabile, bella: "amazing", "wonderful". It was rebuilt in a lavish Baroque style from 1710, according to plans designed by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt. On 1 June 1815 the later King Otto of Greece was born here, while his father, the Wittelsbach crown prince Ludwig I of Bavaria served as stadtholder in the former Electorate of Salzburg. The current Neoclasical appearance dates from about 1818, when the place was restored after a blaze. In its geometrically-arranged gardens are mythology-themed statues dating from 1730 and four groups of sculpture (Eneas, Hercules, Paris and Pluton) by the Italian sculptor Ottavio Mosto, from 1690. It is noted for its boxwood layouts.