Wasserspiele Hellbrunn, Renaissance water features park in Salzburg, Austria

Wasserspiele Hellbrunn is a water-feature park in the Hellbrunn palace park at the southern edge of Salzburg, commissioned around 1613 by Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus von Hohenems. Its flat, wet paved ground holds rectangular pools with thin jets, clipped hedges and trees; pale stone blocks with a square opening and smaller stone stools stand in front, and a statue on a stone base rises behind the water, with a fine spray falling from above on the right.

Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus commissioned the water features around 1613 in the park of Hellbrunn, laid out in the style of an Italian villa urbana and modelled on Italian water gardens such as the Villa d'Este in Tivoli. The name Hellbrunn for the "Palatium beim Tiergarten" first appears in the sources in December 1616. The six statues of the Theatrum were made after Giovanni Battista Cavalieri's 1585 book of Roman statues.

The name Hellbrunn first appears in records in December 1616, for the "Palatium beim Tiergarten". The climax of a visit under Markus Sittikus and his successors was the Figurengarten with its water pranks, where catching fish with rod and trident was often part of the entertainment. The Theatrum's central imperial statue, probably by Hans Waldburger, has hair combed straight back, unlike antique imperial portraits, and its face recalls Sittikus's nephew Jakob Hannibal II.

Visitors can explore the grounds on their own or join guided tours lasting about one hour with audio guides available in multiple languages. The site has sloped pathways of varying steepness, so comfortable footwear and time to walk at a leisurely pace are important.

The garden's water tricks were already famous enough that a 1628 account describes a visit by Ferdinand II de' Medici, and the fish-catching with rod and trident in the figure garden was often part of the entertainment. The stone slab with a square opening in the foreground belongs to this same playful water architecture.