June 17, 2023 - Austria
Saltzburg: Hohensalzburg Fortress
We got an early start and were on the first Funicular car up the mountain to Hohensalzburg Fortress.
   
On the fortress ramparts, looking north at Saltzburg and the River Salzach.   The Old Town is on this side of the river, and the New Town on the far side.  Our hotel was in the New Town but it didn't take long to walk to the Old Town.
   
Now looking south at the northern tip of the Alps.  In the distant mountain valley is Berchtesgaden, Obersalzberg and the Eagle's Nest in Germany.
   
Looking west at Flughafen Salzburg (airport).
   

Looking down at Saltzburg Cathedral.  Saint Rupert founded the church in 774 on the remnants of a Roman town, and the cathedral was rebuilt in 1181 after a fire.  In the seventeenth century, the cathedral was completely rebuilt in the Baroque style under Prince-Bishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau to its present appearance.

Across the river, you can just make out the Gardens in Mirabell Palace (top center).
   
 
   
The Fortress is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.
   
The old city wall can clearly be discerned across the river.
   
You can just make out the courtyard far down below.  The fortress was a real maze!
   
The main building where the Fortress Museum and State Rooms were located.  I don't know if we missed them or they were not open but we did not see the State Rooms:  the Golden Hall amd the Royal Apartment.  We also did not see the Saltzburg Bull or Chapel of archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach.
   
Working our way through the maze.
   
 
   

Construction of the current fortress began in 1077 under Archbishop Gebhard von Helfenstein.  The original design was a basic bailey with a wooden wall. In the Holy Roman Empire, the archbishops of Salzburg were already powerful political figures and they expanded the fortress to protect their interests.
 
   
Prince-Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach further expanded the fortress during his term from 1495 until 1519.[5] His coadjutor Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, who was later to succeed Leonhard, in 1515 wrote a description of the Reisszug, a very early and primitive funicular railway that provided freight access to the upper courtyard of the fortress. The line still exists, albeit in updated form, and is probably the oldest operational railway in the world.
   
The current external bastions, begun in the 16th century and completed in the 17th, were added as a precaution because of fears of Turkish Islamic invasion.
   
The only time that the fortress actually came under siege was during the German Peasants' War in 1525, when a group of miners, farmers and townspeople tried to oust Prince-Archbishop Matthäus Lang, but failed to take the fortress. In 1617 the deposed Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau died in the fortress prison. During the Thirty Years' War, Archbishop Count Paris of Lodron strengthened the town's defenses, including Hohensalzburg. He added various parts to the fortress, such as the gunpowder stores and additional gatehouses.
   
The fortress as of 1619.
   
1810.  The fortress was surrendered without a fight to French troops under General Jean Victor Marie Moreau during the Napoleonic War of the Second Coalition in 1800 and the last Prince-Archbishop Count Hieronymus von Colloredo fled to Vienna.
 
In the 19th century, it was used as barracks, storage depot and dungeon before being abandoned as a military outpost in 1861.
   

Hohensalzburg Fortress was refurbished from the late 19th century onwards and became a major tourist attraction with the Festungsbahn funicular railway, opened in 1892.

During the early 20th century it was used as a prison, holding Italian prisoners of war during World War I and Nazi activists before Germany's annexation of Austria in March 1938.
   
Austrian soldiers back in 1789.
   
Nice looking uniforms.
   
Austrian general's uniform complete with medals and feather cap.
   
Colorful Austrian medals.
   
Austrian alpine outpost during World War I.  The Rainer Regiment, a division of the imperial Austrian army, fought mountain-to-mountain on the Italian front during World War I.
   
Austrian soldiers fighting in the Alps.
   
Medieval armor.
   
Medieval swords and other weapons.
   
Nice polish job on this set of armor.
   
Remnants of a Roman fort?  Archaeological excavations have shown that a Roman fort existed at the highest point of the site.
   
Outside in the fortress courtyard, complete with chapel.
   
OOO
   
It is easy to see why nobody ever captured this castle.
   
A Funicular carriage takes people back down to the Old Town.
   
 
   
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