March 19, 2012
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Hohensalzburg Castle
One of the first things we visited in the city was Hohensalzburg Castle. This was the home of the Prince Archbishops. They started building it in 1077 and kept adding to it until about 1620. Wow. They started building it right after William the Conqueror and stopped when the Pilgrims came to America? Wow. The name means “High Salzburg Fortress,” which is exactly what it was. No one ever took this castle in all the years it stood there. But in 1803, it voluntarily surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte.
To get to the castle, you can hop aboard a cable car (more like a funicular train) which was built in 1892.
It whisks you up the side of the mountain to an impressive view of the city. Or, if you are weak-kneed about heights, it’s a terrifying view of the city!
The kids had a great time looking over the sides of the ramparts. Michael discovered a rain gutter that served as a target for people dropping coins.
He could not resist trying his luck. And he made it.
While we were up on the ramparts, Michael pointed out the wall surrounding the city. I read later that we could have walked a trail along this wall, but by then, we had too many other things to do to make the trek back to the fortress.
We climbed a tower (Rapunzel! Rapunzel!) and went to the inner courtyard of the fortress.
Here, you could tour the State Rooms, visit a marionette theater, wander around, or take a tour of the walls of the fortress. The kids and I opted for the fortress tour. James, who prefers his feet to stay below 500 ft. above sea level decided to wait for us to finish.
The tour took explained a bit of history, showed us a torture chamber, and best of all, took us to the tippy top of the fortress. We had some great views! Most of the high-above-the-city shots I will and have posted of Salzburg were taken from this vantage point.
This little house was interesting. It was in the middle of a field all by itself (as you can obviously see). It is the house where the “Watcher of the Cabbages” lived. But, that was just his day job. He also served as the executioner!
It was a fort, so there were the obligatory cannons.
At the end of the tour, they led us to the Salzburg Bull. “What could this be?” I wondered. Is it a huge bull statue? It is some random German word? Is it a Catholic thing? Turns out, it’s 200 pipe, mechanical organ.
The reason it’s called that is that originally, it could only play one set of chords. The residents thought it sounded like a snorting bull. Now, however, it plays chimes and melodies of Haydn and Mozart, those hometown boys!
After our tour, we wandered the interior for a while.
I was intrigued by the network of gutters in the cobblestones. Yeah, medieval plumbing’s da bomb!
Speaking of medieval plumbing, I also toured the state rooms, which were the rooms where the Prince Archbishop lived and worked. In his bedroom, there was a bathroom right in the middle of it. (Not sure if this is the bedroom or not. All the rooms looked just about the same–over the top ornate!)
Later, a tour guide pointed out that on one of the towers, there was a jutting-out box. That was where the Prince Archbishop’s toilet was. I guess it just “flushed” straight down the mountain! (Note to Prince Archbishops–don’t drop your cell phone down that medieval loo!)
If you do, Michael might have to climb up and get it for you.
