Maria von Trapp visits childhood home

SALZBURG, Austria, July 26 (UPI) -- Maria von Trapp, a member of the family that inspired "The Sound of Music," has visited her family home in Austria for the first time in more than 50 years.

The Villa Trapp in Salzburg, where the family lived from 1923 to 1938, is being converted into a hotel, The Daily Telegraph reports. Trapp, now 93, was invited to stay by the couple now renting the building from a religious order, the Missionaries of the Precious Blood.

"I'm sleeping in the room where my brother slept," Trapp said. "It's very nice to be back again."

Trapp's father, Georg von Trapp, opposed the Nazis and the family moved first to Italy and then to the United States after the annexation of Austria to Germany by the Nazi regime. The villa was seized by the Nazis and used by Heinrich Himmler during the war, and the Trapps sold it to the Missionaries in 1947.

The Villa Trapp played no part in the movie. Interiors were shot on sound stages, while the family's movie home was a lakeside castle.

But the hotel, scheduled to open in October, is expected to be a big hit with "Sound of Music" fans, the newspaper said.

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