Belletrist: Salzburg: Festung Hohensalzburg

View of the fortress from Old Town

A visit to Salzburg would not have been complete without a trip up the Festungberg to visit the Hohensalzburg Fortress. The fortress can be reached by a funicular railway or a long, steep staircase that leads up the mountain. We took the funicular, which has been operating for hundreds of years in various forms (horse to hi-tech), since the cobblestone was a little slippery from recent snowfall and I think we were all excited by the idea of just zipping up the mountainside and enjoying the view. And the views are amazing! On one side, you are able to overlook Salzburg from the domes and spires of the Old Town churches, across to Schloss Mirabell and the gardens and further to the train station. On the other side of the fortress, the outskirts of Salzburg stretch across a long flatland until they reach the magnificent mountains that border Austria and Germany.

After we took in these sweeping views, we headed inside for an audio-guided tour of the fortress interior. The fortress was built in 1077 as a stronghold for the archbishops of Salzburg. It was originally a small structure, but each archbishop added onto the fortress for the next several centuries. One of our favorite stories from the audio guide was about an archbishop whose uncle did not think he would amount to much when he was a child. The uncle threw a turnip at his head to "knock some sense into him" and once he became archbishop he adopted the turnip as his official symbol and incorporated it into his coat of arms. Throughout the rest of the tour, we hunted for the turnip symbol in doorways and on shields throughout the fortress.

A view of Old Town from the fortress walls

On the other side of the fortress, countryside gives way to the Alps. Coincidentally, I used to have views of this mountain from my bedroom window at the pension where I stayed during my semester abroad.