Salzburg's Markets: What to Taste, and When to Show Up

Salzburg market life runs on a strict timetable, and the timetable is the whole trick. Turn up at the wrong hour and you get a closed awning; turn up at the right one and you get the best food in the city, standing up, for a few euros.

• Grünmarkt, Universitätsplatz: mornings, Monday to Saturday; closed Sundays and public holidays
• Schranne, Mirabellplatz: Thursday mornings only, starting very early and packing up around midday
• Christkindlmarkt, Domplatz and Residenzplatz: through Advent, generally to just after Christmas
• Rule of thumb: Austrian markets are a morning activity, not an afternoon one

The Grünmarkt, for a standing breakfast

The green market runs the length of Universitätsplatz in the shadow of the Kollegienkirche, and it is where the Old Town actually shops. Alpine cheeses, cured speck, mountain honey, pumpkin seed oil dark as engine oil, and bakery stalls turning out Brezen and Salzstangerl. Arrive by nine, buy a roll and a wedge of something, and eat it against a wall like everyone else.

The Schranne, if you can manage a Thursday

The city big weekly farmers market gathers around the Andräkirche on Mirabellplatz every Thursday morning, and traders start setting up in the dark. This is the serious one: producers from the Salzburg countryside and the neighbouring Alpine valleys, with far less souvenir trade than the Old Town. It thins out well before lunch, so an eight o clock start is not excessive.

The Bosna, Salzburg own street food

Invented in Salzburg in the 1950s and still barely known outside it: two thin bratwurst in a white roll, with raw onion, parsley and a heavy dust of curry powder. The classic stands are tucked in the covered passageways off the Getreidegasse, the arched shortcuts that thread between the street and the squares behind it. It costs very little and it is the correct thing to eat at eleven at night.

Sweet things worth the detour

The original Mozartkugel was created by the confectioner Paul Fürst in 1890 and is still hand-made and wrapped in silver and blue at Café Fürst, which is a different object entirely from the foil-wrapped versions in every airport. Sit down instead for Salzburger Nockerl, a warm sweet soufflé served in three peaks said to echo the hills around the city; it is made to order and shared between two.

The Advent markets

From late November, Domplatz and Residenzplatz fill with wooden stalls, and the food is better than the souvenirs: Glühwein and Kinderpunsch, Bratwurst, roasted chestnuts, Kiachl fried dough with sauerkraut, and gingerbread hearts. The Hellbrunn palace market a short bus ride out of town is the one locals send you to when the centre gets too full.

The market that is also a beer hall

The Augustiner Bräustübl in Mülln is a monastery brewery where you collect a stone stein, rinse it at the fountain and have it filled from the barrel. Along one side runs an arcade of market stalls selling pretzels, radishes, roast pork and smoked fish to carry to your table. It opens in the afternoon, and the beer garden under the chestnut trees is one of the great Salzburg experiences.

Tip: Almost nothing food-related in Salzburg opens on a Sunday. Plan your market morning for any other day and keep Sunday for the fortress.