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| Visiting Salzburg, Austria |
Today, Tina Picotes and her friends are visiting Salzburg, an incredible city where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756. Salzburg is also the scenery of The Sound of Music a cinema masterpiece that was based on the figure of Maria Von Trapp, the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers.
Salzburg is wonderful place and The Grandma has enjoyed its cafès and local food but, especially, its churches. The Grandma isn't a religious person but she likes visiting them because churches are great demonstrations of history and culture. Claire Fontaine and Tonyi Tamaki have searched information about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his music, and Joseph de Ca'th Lon has been interested in the biography of Maria Von Trapp.
Before visiting the city, The Grandma had had a local breakfast while she has been studying a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Grammar 67).
Salzburg, literally salt castle, is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of Federal State of Salzburg.
Its historic centre, Altstadt, is renowned for its baroque architecture and is one of the best-preserved city centres north of the Alps, with 27 churches. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. The city has three universities and a large population of students. Tourists also visit Salzburg to tour the historic centre and the scenic Alpine surroundings.
More information: UNESCO
Salzburg was the birthplace of the 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the mid‑20th century, the city was the setting for the musical play and film The Sound of Music.
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| Claire Fontaine in Salzburg, the city of churches |
Traces of human settlements have been found in the area, dating to the Neolithic Age. The first settlements in Salzburg continuous with the present were apparently by the Celts around the 5th century BC.
Around 15 BC the Roman Empire merged the settlements into one city. At this time, the city was called Juvavum and was awarded the status of a Roman municipium in 45 AD. Juvavum developed into an important town of the Roman province of Noricum. After the Norican frontier’s collapse, Juvavum declined so sharply that by the late 7th century it nearly became a ruin.
The Life of Saint Rupert credits the 8th-century saint with the city's rebirth. When Theodo of Bavaria asked Rupert to become bishop c. 700, Rupert reconnoitered the river for the site of his basilica. Rupert chose Juvavum, ordained priests, and annexed the manor of Piding. Rupert named the city Salzburg. He travelled to evangelise among pagans.
More information: Salzburg
The name Salzburg means Salt Castle from Latin Salis Burgium. The name derives from the barges carrying salt on the River Salzach, which were subject to a toll in the 8th century as was customary for many communities and cities on European rivers. Hohensalzburg Fortress, the city's fortress, was built in 1077 by Archbishop Gebhard, who made it his residence. It was greatly expanded during the following centuries.
Independence from Bavaria was secured in the late 14th century. Salzburg was the seat of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, a prince-bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire.
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| Joseph de Ca'th Lon in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee |
As the Reformation movement gained steam, riots broke out among peasants in the areas in and around Salzburg. The city was occupied during the German Peasants' War, and the Archbishop had to flee to the safety of the fortress It was besieged for three months in 1525.
Eventually, tensions were quelled, and the city's independence led to an increase in wealth and prosperity, culminating in the late 16th to 18th centuries under the Prince Archbishops Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Markus Sittikus, and Paris Lodron. It was in the 17th century that Italian architects, and Austrians who had studied the Baroque style, rebuilt the city centre as it is today along with many palaces.
On 31 October 1731, the 214th anniversary of the 95 Theses, Archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian signed an Edict of Expulsion, the Emigrationspatent, directing all Protestant citizens to recant their non-Catholic beliefs. 21,475 citizens refused to recant their beliefs and were expelled from Salzburg. Most of them accepted an offer by King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, travelling the length and breadth of Germany to their new homes in East Prussia. The rest settled in other Protestant states in Europe and the British colonies in America.
More information: Austria
In 1772–1803, under archbishop Hieronymus Graf von Colloredo, Salzburg was a centre of late Illuminism.
In 1803, the archbishopric was secularised by Emperor Napoleon; he transferred the territory to Ferdinando III of Tuscany, former Grand Duke of Tuscany, as the Electorate of Salzburg.
In 1805, Salzburg was annexed to the Austrian Empire, along with the Berchtesgaden Provostry.
In 1809, the territory of Salzburg was transferred to the Kingdom of Bavaria after Austria's defeat at Wagram.
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| The Grandma visits Salzburg |
After the Congress of Vienna with the Treaty of Munich (1816), Salzburg was definitively returned to Austria, but without Rupertigau and Berchtesgaden, which remained with Bavaria.
Salzburg was integrated into the Province of Salzach and Salzburgerland was ruled from Linz.
In 1850, Salzburg's status was restored as the capital of the Duchy of Salzburg, a crownland of the Austrian Empire. The city became part of Austria-Hungary in 1866 as the capital of a crownland of the Austrian Empire. The nostalgia of the Romantic Era led to increased tourism. In 1892, a funicular was installed to facilitate tourism to Hohensalzburg Fortress.
More information: The Abroad Guide
Following World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; Salzburg, as the capital of one of the Austro-Hungarian territories, became part of the new German Austria. In 1918, it represented the residual German-speaking territories of the Austrian heartlands. This was replaced by the First Austrian Republic in 1919, after the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919).
The Anschluss, the occupation and annexation of Austria, including Salzburg, into the Third Reich, took place on 12 March 1938, one day before a scheduled referendum on Austria's independence. German troops moved into the city.
Political opponents, Jewish citizens and other minorities were subsequently arrested and deported to concentration camps.
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| The Grandma & Claire contemplate Salzburg |
The synagogue was destroyed. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, several POW camps for prisoners from the Soviet Union and other enemy nations were organized in the city.
During the Nazi occupation, a Romani camp was built in Salzburg-Maxglan. It was an Arbeitserziehungslager, work education camp, which provided slave labour to local industry. It also operated as a Zwischenlager, transit camp, holding Roma before their deportation to German extermination camps or ghettos in German-occupied territories in eastern Europe.
More information: Lonely Planet
Allied bombing destroyed 7,600 houses and killed 550 inhabitants. Fifteen air strikes destroyed 46 percent of the city's buildings, especially those around Salzburg railway station. Although the town's bridges and the dome of the cathedral were destroyed, much of its Baroque architecture remained intact. As a result, Salzburg is one of the few remaining examples of a town of its style.
American troops entered the city on 5 May 1945 and it became the centre of the American-occupied area in Austria. Several displaced persons camps were established in Salzburg -among them Riedenburg, Camp Herzl (Franz-Josefs-Kaserne), Camp Mülln, Bet Bialik, Bet Trumpeldor, and New Palestine.
After World War II, Salzburg became the capital city of the Federal State of Salzburg (Land Salzburg).
On 27 January 2006, the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, all 35 churches of Salzburg rang their bells after 8:00 p.m., local time, to celebrate the occasion. Major celebrations took place throughout the year.
More information: NBC News
When I was four years old, my father,
who was a colonel in the army, was stationed in Salzburg, Austria.
Across the street from our house was an ancient castle on a cliff.
So when I first heard fairy tales, I felt as if the magic of 'Cinderella' or 'Sleeping Beauty' was taking place right in my own neighborhood.
Mary Pope Osborne
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