Exploring Salzburg

EAST: Town walk Into Urban Grey and Urban Green

14 August 2020 / 6–7 pm CEST

Town Walk 2015, photo: Mira Turba

Arnulf Hartl is head of the Institute of Ecomedicine at the Paracelsus Medical Private University in Salzburg. With his team, he researches the effect of nature on people's health and wellbeing, and will accompany the group on a walk through the grey and green areas of Salzburg.

The discussion will deal with the settlement structure and the variously designed living environments of rich and poor, natives and migrants, young and old, along Salzburg's main axis, the River Salzach. The correlations between urban planning, nature and health, and the resultant influence on social harmony will be considered.

The worldwide growth of urban populations is leading to increasing alienation from the natural environment; wellbeing, life satisfaction and happiness seem endangered through densely populated urban areas. It would seem all the more important, then, to create islands of nature to allow urban dwellers places to relax and experience the natural world. The subject under discussion here will be how environmental medicine can contribute to a successful implementation of this idea.

Meeting-point: in front of Stadtgalerie Lehen, Inge-Morath-Platz 31, 5020 Salzburg
Language: English

The horizon is not the limit

The motto of this year's Summer Academy, "New Horizons", is also the theme of the town walks, curated by Karin Buchauer. What is a horizon, where and how can you find it? What happens on a town walk – what does “walking” mean?

Starting from the four compass points and the assumption that walking is not only a means of human mobility, but can be an artistic, spiritual and scientific practice, we would like to walk in a different way round Salzburg with those interested, to look with fresh eyes and see what walking does with us. Walking gets something going – the circulation, the brain, the social relationships so restricted by isolation during the pandemic. A walk relaxes and brings benefits. At any rate, there are things yet to be discovered on familiar paths and new routes.

Our guides will be a geoinformatics specialist, a researcher in ecomedicine, two literary scholars and an art educator, who will take us along familiar and unfamiliar routes through Salzburg and with surprising insights towards new horizons. In the present situation, we are overstepping the current group limits for participation in the town walks, so for the first time it will be possible to participate online!