Monatsschlössl

This guide to the Monatsschlössl in Salzburg's Hellbrunn gardens opens with a four-hundred-year-old local legend: that Prince Archbishop Markus Sittikus, ruling from 1612 to 1619, promised a visiting Habsburg archduke a brand-new palace by the time he passed through again, and that this squat hunting lodge appeared, finished, weeks later. It follows historians as they go digging through the building records to test that claim against what actually got built, and how long it really took. Since 1924 the lodge has held Salzburg's folklore museum, worth a look before you leave.