ART AND BEAUTY IMAGES FOR YOU

SALZBURG – Austria (3)

Salzburg is an Austrian city of 148,521 inhabitants (2012). The old town is inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Festung Hohensalzburg

Festung Hohensalzburg is a medieval Austrian fortress located in Salzburg at the top of the Festungsberg mountain. It is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. The fortification is close to that of the castle of Hohenwerfen.
The construction of the fortress began in 1077 by the Archbishop of Salzburg Gebhard von Helfenstein.
Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach enlarged the castle during his mandate from 1495 to 1519. In 1515 his coadjutor Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg conceived the Reisszug, a primitive funicular railway that allowed freight to be transported to the upper castle. The line still exists but restored. It is probably the oldest operating path in the world.
The surrounding walls and towers were built in 1462 by Prince-Bishop Burkhard Weisbriach.
During the Second Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars in 1800, the fort surrendered without combat to the French troops of General Jean Victor Marie Moreau. The last prince-archbishop Hieronymus von Colloredo-Mannsfeld then fled to Vienna.

In the nineteenth century, the castle was used as a barracks, storage depot and dungeon before being abandoned as a military outpost in 1861. By the end of the century the castle was renovated and became a major tourist attraction with the Festungsbahn cable car opened in 1892, leading from the city to the Hasengrabenbastei.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the fortress was used as a prison, notably for the detention of Italian prisoners of war during the First World War and Nazi militants in the 1930s.
Today, it appears as one of the best preserved castles in Europe.

[wikipedia.org]

In my last trip to Salzburg this year, I took pictures, especially for my dear friends and readers of my blog. I hope you like them. ALOZADE Ahmed

I am the author of all the photos; All rights are reserved, prohibited to download or use without my written permission.