The palace was built about 1606 on the shore of the
Salzach river north of the medieval city walls, at the behest of Prince-Archbishop
Wolf Dietrich Raitenau. The Archbishop suffered from
gout and had a
stroke the year before; to evade the narrow streets of the city, he decided to erect a pleasure palace for him and his mistress
Salome Alt. Allegedly built within six months according to Italian and French models, it was initially named
Schloss Altenau. When Raitenau was deposed and arrested at
Hohensalzburg Castle in 1612, his successor
Mark Sittich von Hohenems expelled Salome Alt and her family from the premises. Mark Sittich gave the palace its current name from ,
bella: "amazing", "wonderful". It was rebuilt in a lavish
Baroque style from 1721 to 1727, 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
Neoclassical appearance dates from about 1818, when the palace was restored after a blaze. Archbishop
Maximilian Joseph von Tarnóczy resided here from 1851 to 1863. The father of
Hans Makart worked here as a chamberlain.
Joachim Haspinger (1776–1858),
Capuchin priest and a leader of the
Tyrolean Rebellion, spent his last year in a small flat. The palace was purchased by the City of Salzburg in 1866. After
World War II, it began being used for the mayor's office and several departments of the municipal administration. ==Marble Hall==