Hohensalzburg#

Hohensalzburg Castle, alt. 542 m (122 m above the River Salzach), fortress of the city of Salzburg, one of the largest and best-preserved fortifications in Europe, located on an elevation overlooking the city of Salzburg. This elevation was first settled in the 8th century B.C., later included into the fortification system of the Roman town of Iuvavum, which also comprised the fortified settlement on the Nonnberg terrace (castrum superius). After the foundation of the Nonnberg convent (712-15) the fortifications fell into disrepair. The first fortress, which had been built in 1077 on the order of Archbishop Gebhard during his battle against King Heinrich IV as a temporary wooden construction, was replaced by a stone keep (the joint in the upper storey is still visible) and a huge curtain wall under Archbishop Konrad I. After initial extensions by B. v. Weisspriach (circular towers of the curtain wall 1465), B. v. Rohr ("Schlangengang" ("gun gallery) and bastion 1479) and J. Beckenschlager (granary 1484, Arbeitshaus workshop), it was converted into a residence in late-Gothic style (square angle towers 1496, inner bastion and inner curtain wall 1496-1501, St. Georg´s Church 1501/02, "Salzburger Stier" barrel organ 1502, "Reisszug" cableway for the transport of goods 1504, Keutschach memorial 1515) under Leonhard von Keutschach (1495-1519). The splendidly furnished prince´s apartments (Golden Chamber with late-Gothic tiled stove 1501) on the upper floor are among the masterpieces of late-Gothic European secular architecture. Cardinal Matthaeus Lang, who was besieged in Hohensalzburg by the rebels for 3 months during the peasants´ war of 1525, ordered the building of the Buegermeisterturm tower as a gun tower ("Schlangenrondell" 1523), the Nonnberg bastions (1526) and the large cistern in the courtyard. Under Archbishop Paris Lodron the extensive advanced works to the west and the north (1631-42) were built and the fortress became the main building of the fortification system of Salzburg, built by S. Solari. The last important building to be added was the Kuenburg bastion, built in 1681 alongside the access road. Never in its history has Hohensalzburg been conquered. In 1861 it lost its function as a fortress but was used as a barracks until World War II. The funicular railway (173 m long) leading from the Kapitelplatz square up to the fortress was built in 1891, water-powered until 1960, since then operated by electricity. 1951-81 extensive renovation of the fortress. In the lower prince´s apartments the Fortress Museum (a department of the Salzburg museum Carolino Augusteum) runs a permanent exhibition on the Middle Ages and the early Modern Age, the rooms above - including the room where Archbishop Wolf Dietrich died a prisoner in 1617 - house the Rainer museum (of the Salzburg Regiment no. 59). Every year the Salzburg International Summer Academy organises courses in the granary and the Arbeitshaus workshop in the tradition of O. Kokoschka´s "Schule des Sehens" (school of seeing).