Tourist Day: the Hohensalzburg Fortress

The most salient architectural feature of Salzburg is the looming Hohensalzburg fortress, one of the largest medieval fortresses still in existence, which sits high on the Mönchsberg mountain, named after the Benedictine monks of St. Peter's Abby at the northern foot of the mountain. The other big mountain in the municipality of Salzburg is the Kapuzinerberg, named after a Capuchins cloister sited on the mountain. I put a photo of it up the other day, mentioning I didn't know the name of that mountain--it lies across the Salzach from the Grosses Festspielhaus.

Incidentally, on most sides of Salzburg, except directly to the north, everywhere you look there are forbidding looking high mountains--you just get the slight feeling you are on the edge of Mordor.

Click to enlarge this, and other photos

So yesterday, some friends and I did the Hohensalzburg fortress tour and by the end we wished that the fortress hadn't been quite so large. Luckily you don't have to climb hundreds of feet of steps as there is a funicular that takes you right to the top. Once there, there is a tour, with audio commentary, that takes you through one side of the structure with a display of portraits of the archbishops and models of the various stages of construction. Oh, yes, why archbishops? One doesn't usually find archbishops building a lot of grand fortresses, does one? The Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical principality and state of the Holy Roman Empire and also ruled over salt, gold and silver mines. The salt was transported to various marketplaces by means of the Salzach river. Perhaps the most powerful and last of the feudal rulers was Leonhard von Keutschach who ruled in the years around 1500. His coat of arms prominently included the image of a turnip which you see everywhere in the fortress.

There is also a museum with lots of interesting medieval artefacts and a separate building containing the archbishop's private residence.

Some photos:

The fortress looking up from the old market square

And after ascending in the funicular

Looking down on historic Salzburg from the fortress

There was one interesting musical item in the fortress, the so-called "Salzburg Bull" a mechanical organ using a player-piano roll:

Used mainly for calling workers to their tasks as it could only play notes in F major

If you look closely at the shield decoration over the arch, you can see one of the famous turnips:

Contemplating the mysteries of the turnip

The music room in the residence of the archbishop

There was an interesting street musician playing in the Alt-Markt, a hammer-dulcimer player:

And that was our tour of the fortress.