Vienna - A project to turn the original Salzburg home of the von Trapp family, featured in the film The Sound of Music, into a hotel was stopped Wednesday by local residents fearing for their peace and quiet. The town's planning council on Wednesday did not approve the proposal for running a hotel and event location in the villa, after operators could not come to an agreement with locals, who claimed that the hotel would turn into a major tourist destination.
"Reason prevailed," said Manfred Schitter, the head of a local civic group in the quiet, affluent part of Salzburg where the von Trapp family once lived.
Although around 400,000 of the town's 1.1 million tourists visited last year because of the Sound of Music, Schitter and many other citizens would prefer Salzburg to be known as Mozart's birthplace.
"I am a Salzburg citizen, and I think it's rubbish," Schitter said about the Sound of Music. "For me, Mozart is important," he said.
But the hotel's operators, who have already finished renovating the property, said they would not give up. "We already have ideas how to carry on," said business manager Marianne Dorfer.
She said she was planning to bring the issue before one of Austria's higher courts, and to operate Villa Trapp as a club, thereby circumventing the need for the city's approval.
From 1923 to 1938, Georg von Trapp, his wife Maria and their children lived in the house. The building does not feature in the film.
The singing family became famous when the story about their escape from the Nazis in 1938 was made into the Oscar-winning musical film in 1965.
