Salzburg Attractions

Topography and economy

The Salzburg province lies between the Upper Bavarian plain and the hilly Alpine foreland in the north, the Hohe Tauern in the south and a region of varied topography to the east, where it is dominated by the Dachstein massif and watered by the river systems of the Traun, the Enns and the Mur. It extends over both sides of the Salzach valley, the principal traffic route through the region. The great bend in the river between Schwarzach and St Johann im Pongau lies roughly in the middle of the province. Almost all the side valleys of the two principal rivers, the Salzach and the Saalach, narrow into gorges at their mouths, forming waterfalls down which their mountain streams ("Achen") tumble into the main valley.

Important elements in the economy of the province are the extraction of salt (Hallein) and the hydroelectric power stations fed by large reservoirs in the mountains around Kaprun and on the Gerlos Road. In addition there are Alpine pastoral farming and forestry, small deposits of lignite, peat and copper, and two aluminum plants. Tourism makes a major contribution to the economy throughout the whole year.

History

During the Celtic Hallstatt period (Early Iron Age) the region was an important focus of trade, especially in salt from Hallein. The Romans built a road over the Radstädter Tauern into northern Europe, and other roads extended from the Roman settlement on the site of present day Salzburg far into the surrounding territory.

During this period the valleys in this region, sheltered behind high mountains, suffered less severely than the open territories of Lower and Upper Austria and Styria; so Salzburg was not totally destroyed during the troubles of the fifth C., although there is much evidence of destruction by fire to show that the town did suffer heavy damage about 470.

About 690 the abbey of St Peter was founded and granted properties which formed the basis of the later extensive possessions of the Archbishops of Salzburg. With the establishment of the bishopric of Salzburg at the beginning of the eighth C. and its elevation into an archbishopric at the end of that century the foundations were laid for the creation of a great ecclesiastical domain. Thus, even at this early period, we can detect the beginnings of the later ecclesiastical principality, the core of which is the present day province of Salzburg.

At the end of the 13th C. there were bitter conflicts with Duke Albrecht of Austria and Styria, and at the beginning of the 14th C. there were still fiercer wars with Bavaria. In the struggles between various branches of the Habsburgs and in the Hungarian War of the 15th C. the Archbishops of Salzburg sided with the opponents of the Emperor Frederick III. The province's geographical situation protected it against attack by the Turks, but it still suffered severely during the Peasant Wars of 1525 and 1526.

Although the Counter-Reformation of the early 17th C. caused relatively little harm, the religious problem boiled up again in 1731 with the expulsion of the Protestants.

After the secularization of the archbishopric in 1803 Salzburg became a secular principality. In 1805 it was made a duchy within Austria; in 1809 it was ceded to Bavaria; and in 1816 it was finally incorporated in Austria, with the exception of the territory around Berchtesgaden and another small area.

From 1850 to 1918 Salzburg was an independent crown land, and thereafter a federal province (Bundesland) in the Republic of Austria. Since the end of the Second World War (during which the town of Salzburg suffered several air raids) it has shared the destinies of the re-established Republic.

Art

Throughout the whole medieval period Salzburg was a focal point of intellectual and artistic life. The scriptorium of St Peter's Abbey was famous for its illuminated manuscripts, which are now housed in the abbey library.

Romanesque art is represented by the remains of frescos in the choir of the Nonnberg convent church (c. 1150), which are based on Greek patterns, the excavated remains of the Romanesque cathedral of Salzburg, and Michaelbeuern Abbey with its original Romanesque church (later much altered).

To the Gothic period belong the Nonnberg church, the towers of the Hohensalzburg and St Margaret's Chapel (St Peter's cemetery). The Lungau is particularly rich in work of this period. Many country churches have preserved their Gothic character.

In the early part of the period the great area of castle building was the Lungau; and commanding situations were occupied by the fortresses of Hohensalzburg and Hohenwerfen.

From the 16th C. onwards many castles were built between Salzburg and Hallein, in the valley around Radstadt, in the Tamsweg basin, in the upper Pinzgau and between Zell am See and Saalfelden.

The art of the province reached its greatest flowering, however, in the Baroque period, when a leading role was played by the town of Salzburg, e.g. the Kollegienkirche.

Tourist attractions

The province of Salzburg is a region of widely varying topography. To the north the mighty limestone massifs fall away in attractive rolling uplands and plains, while to the east the hills of the Salzkammergut, rising gradually higher, merge into the Alpine landscape of Upper Austria and extend to the borders of Styria in the Dachstein range. At the Lueg pass, to the south of Salzburg, the massive limestone massifs of the Tennengebirge and Hagengebirge fall down in sheer rock faces to the banks of the Salzach. Then follows the Steinernes Meer, a vast plateau of sublime and solitary beauty, above which rises the glittering ice of the Übergossene Alm on the Hochkönig, with the rugged pinnacles of the Manndlwände. To the west the Loferer and Leoganger Steinberge mark the boundary between Salzburg and Tirol. To the south of the Leoganger Steinberge, the Steinernes Meer, the Hochkönig, the Tennengebirge and the Dachstein group, extends the ridge of the Pinzgauer and Pongauer Schieferalpen (Schist Alps) into the upper Enns valley. The Niedere Tauern, a chain of ancient mountains, reaches from Styria to the Murtörl, forming a transition to the Hohe Tauern. The wide hollows of the Hohe and Niedere Tauern are occupied by dark mountain lakes, and strongly flowing streams cut their way in steps and stairs through the many valleys of this rock barrier, the southern slopes of which sink down into the Mur valley, where the Lungau opens out.

In a wide basin opening off the Salzach valley at Zell am See lies the Zeller See, with the glacier on the Kitzsteinhorn overhanging it on the south and the rocky terrain of the Steinernes Meer rising out of the basin on the north.