The work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the brilliant Austrian composer and pianist, is also linked to Olomouc. During his stay in the Hauenschild Palace and later in the chapter house, he composed his Symphony No. 6 in F major at the age of eleven.
At the end of October 1767, Leopold Mozart, chaplain to the Archbishop of Salzburg, visited Olomouc with his wife, daughter Anna Maria and eleven-year-old son Wolfgang Amadeus. They fled Vienna via Brno to escape the smallpox epidemic and stayed at the local inn U Černého orla (The Black Eagle) on Dolní náměstí (Lower Square). Mozart’s “miracle” children, whose musical virtuosity enchanted the European audience of the time, fell ill in Olomouc. After a night spent in an inn, the Mozarts took refuge in the residence of the Chapter Dean (on today’s Wenceslas Square), Leopold Antonín Count Podstatský. Although the children soon recovered, the Olomouc audience did not see them perform. The young Mozart, however, began composing again, and so Symphony No. 6 in F major was written in Olomouc.
