Hohensalzburg Fortress

The fortress on the Festungsberg was begun in 1077 by the archbishops of Salzburg and kept growing for six centuries, which is why it survives more or less intact rather than as a ruin. Inside the walls you get a small town: courtyards, a chapel, cisterns, storerooms and the late Gothic state rooms the archbishops used. The Golden Hall keeps its painted ceiling studded with gilt bosses, and the neighbouring chamber has a tiled stove worth the climb on its own. The ramparts give the view that ends up on every postcard of Salzburg: domes, the Salzach, and the Untersberg closing the horizon to the south.

History

Digs have found a Roman fort on the highest point of the hill, and the present fortress was begun in 1077 under Archbishop Gebhard as a simple bailey with a wooden wall, enlarged because of his conflict with Emperor Henry IV in the Investiture Controversy and steadily over the centuries after. Prince-Archbishop Burkhard II von Weißpriach built the ring walls and towers in 1462, Leonhard von Keutschach expanded the fortress again between 1495 and 1519, and in 1515 his coadjutor Matthäus Lang described the Reisszug, a very early funicular for goods to the upper courtyard; restored from the late 19th century, it became a great attraction once the Festungsbahn funicular opened in 1892 (Wikipedia, Hohensalzburg Fortress).

The main sights

• The Golden Hall and Golden Chamber - the late Gothic state rooms with a starred ceiling and a huge tiled stove.
• The ramparts - the walk around the walls, old town roofs on one side and mountains on the other.
• The fortress courtyards - a self-contained hill town of chapel, wells, workshops and storerooms.
• The Salzburg Bull - the mechanical organ in the tower, which still sounds out over the city at set times.

When to go

Open all year, and the funicular runs in most weather. Morning light suits photographs of the old town below; late afternoon is better for the mountains. Queues for the funicular are worst between eleven and three in summer and during the Advent markets. In poor weather the interiors still fill an hour or two.

Before you go

Tickets bundle the funicular with the interiors, so it is not cheap, and the audio guide route is slow when the fortress is full. The rooms open to visitors are a fraction of the complex. Much of what you walk through is bare stone rather than furnished, and on a grey day the famous view is simply grey.

Nearby

The old town, the cathedral and the Nonnberg convent are all directly below the hill.

Key facts