!!!Festung

Fortress: As early as prehistoric times settlements were protected 
against attack by fortifications. In the Middle Ages walled cities and 
 Castles and Palaces took over this function; one of the most 
protected medieval fortresses is  Hohensalzburg Castle. Fortresses 
also had to be constructed to withstand attacks with guns and cannons 
(improvement and expansion in Vienna due to the Turkish sieges 1529 
and 1683, and in Graz). New fortresses were constructed in the 
17%%sup th/%  and 18%%sup th/%  centuries (Theresienstadt, Kufstein, 
Franzensfeste in South Tyrol). In the 19%%sup th/%  century Austria 
reinforced the construction of the rectangle of fortresses Mantua- 
Peschiera- Verona- Legnano to defend Lombardy, as well as the Fortress 
Przemyśl before World War I in Galicia; however, the efforts did 
not live up to expectations. Hitler's propaganda of Austria as an 
"Alpine Fortress" in the last weeks of World War II in 1945 proved 
unfounded.


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