While planning a trip to Salzburg, be sure to include a Thursday in your itinerary. Particularly if your version of “eye candy” involves piles of fresh fruits and vegetables, wheels of cheese, mounds of sausage, stacks of fresh bread and every other sumptuous culinary delight known to mankind.
For over 110 years the residents of Salzburg have flocked to the St. Andräkirche for their weekly shopping run at the Schranne. Named after the municipal grain deposits that used to be housed in the Schrannen buildings at the Mirabellplatz, Salzburg’s Thursday market is one of Austria’s largest outdoor markets. 
The Schranne has been a Salzburg institution since 1906 and today you will find around 190 stalls selling everything from soup to nuts, literally…steaming bowls of tangy fish soup to towering piles of chestnuts.
60% of the vendors come from Salzburg and the rest from Upper Austria, Carinthia and neighboring Bavaria. If you want to set up shop, it will take you ten years to get off the waitlist to peddle your produce. As you can imagine and institution like the Schranne is a “not to be missed” Salzburg experience.
You will find the market in the parking lot around the St. Andräkirche Mirabellplatz 5, from 0500 in the morning until 1:00 p.m every Thursday. If by chance a holiday falls on Thursday, the market is held on Wednesday.
The Schranne is much more than just a weekly market, it is a Thursday outing. Young mothers push prams with smiling babies tucked inside, old men stand drinking wine, and grandmothers gossip while picking through mushrooms.
While in Salzburg we never miss a chance to wander through the Schranne and of course we have our favorite stalls.
I can not pass up some speck from Kärnten and the kids must have a refrigerator full of antipasto and Italian spreads. You will find buckets of sauerkraut, decadent sweets and wurstl by the dozens. You will be tempted by the tubs of olives, jars of pickled vegetables and sweet fruit picked the day before. If Farm to Table is what you ar after, look no further then Salzburg’s Thursday Green Market!
Before heading home, be sure to join the locals for a piece of the best fried chicken you have ever tasted. Served piping hot and wrapped in butcher paper just add a beer and some potato salad and lunch is served! You will find several Frische Backhendl stands near the front steps of the church. You can stand right there and gobble it up or wrap it up and take it home. Don’t wait until the last minute though, more than once we have been victims of “you snooze you lose” when it comes to Green Market Chicken. They usually sell out before noon so don’t tarry too long over the cheese wheels!
I need some of that fried chicken asap! Also, can’t forget the italian spreads 😉