!!!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 8%%sup th/%  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).


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Hohensalzburg|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]