Hohensalzburg Fortress

Hohensalzburg Fortress covers the whole top of the Festungsberg, 506 metres above sea level, and at about 250 by 150 metres it is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. It was begun in 1077 by Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg, who had sided with Pope Gregory VII against Emperor Henry IV in the Investiture Controversy and needed a refuge. The first castle was a simple bailey with wooden walls; the prince-archbishops, who ruled Salzburg as a state of their own, enlarged it for four hundred years. Burkhard II von Weisspriach added the ring walls and towers in 1462, and Leonhard von Keutschach, archbishop from 1495 to 1519, gave it much of its present form, marking his work everywhere with the turnip from his coat of arms. The outer bastions followed in the 16th and 17th centuries, when a Turkish invasion was feared.

For all that work, the fortress was besieged only once, in 1525 during the German Peasants' War, when miners, farmers and townspeople tried and failed to take it from Archbishop Matthäus Lang. The deposed Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau died imprisoned here in 1617, and in 1800 the fortress was surrendered to French troops without a fight. It then served as barracks, store and prison until the army left in 1861. From the late 19th century it was restored as a visitor attraction, helped by the Festungsbahn funicular, which opened in 1892. The fortress also has a much older railway: the Reisszug, a goods lift running up to the upper courtyard, was described in 1515 and, in updated form, is probably the oldest railway line still in operation anywhere.

Inside, the state rooms that Leonhard von Keutschach installed from 1498 on the upper floor are the highlight. The Golden Hall has a coffered ceiling studded with gilded buttons like a night sky, a loggia carried on marble pillars and a 17-metre beam painted with the arms of the Empire, German cities and allied bishoprics. The Golden Chamber keeps benches carved with vines, grapes and animals, and the bedchamber, panelled against the cold, even has its original private toilet. In the Krautturm the Salzburg Bull, a mechanical organ of more than 200 pipes built in 1502 and renewed in 1735, still plays several times a day in season. From the walls the view takes in the whole baroque city below, whose historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

Getting there

The fortress rises directly above Salzburg's old town, about 500 metres from the centre. The Festungsbahn funicular runs up from Festungsgasse, below the northern walls; the alternative is a steep walk. Salzburg Airport (SZG) is about 3 km away.