Festungsberg

The mountain fortress located in the south of the old town of Salzburg and 542 (O- and W - threshold to high stick ) or 540 m ( doorstep George's Church ) high. Inside the high stick of rock extends to a height of about 548 m. On the mountain you will find the emblem of the city, the fortress Hohensalzburg. Together with the adjacent mountain monk and the Rainberg and the Capuchin mountain and the small Bürglstein on the right bank of the Salzach he belongs to the inner city of Bergen this city. He is, together with its eastern edge, the Nonnberg, at its base from the main dolomite and superposed over from Dachstein Limestone. The mountain is now marked off the rocks and the settlement area on the foothills much of forest that largely belongs to the forest community of maple, ash ravine forest in the north and a real wood -rich deciduous forest in the south.

Geography

The mountain fortress located in the historic city center of Salzburg and limits the left old city in the south. Its floor area is approximately 0.13 km ², its largest expansion in east-west direction, 700 meters in a north-south direction on the 275 m. To the west of the fortress mountain passes into the monk mountain to a valley ( the so-called " saddle "). In the north and south it falls partly on steep, in the east is made towards the Salzach as a small foothill of Nonnberg continued. Its height is 542 m above sea level. A. the amount from its surroundings ( locality point Salzburg 424 m) is a maximum of almost 120 meters.

As part of the historic center of the city of the fortress mountain belongs since 1997 a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Geology

The history of the mountain begins at about 200 million years ago. At that time the said rocks were deposited as shallow-water sediments, together with associated coral reefs, which were then increasingly folded 100 million years ago and is pushed to the north. The fortress mountain forms, together with the Capuchin Mountain, the Kühberg and the Nockstein today so the northern edge of the Limestone Alps, the Alpine range, therefore geologically almost to the old town of Salzburg. The extreme south-eastern flank of the mountain along the Brunnhausgasse consists of marl, a clayey -limestone, fine-grained, soft deposit, as well as from old conglomerate, which has been created here by cementing of river gravels of the Cretaceous period.

History

Prehistory and antiquity

From Festungsberg various pre-Roman finds are known to date back to the Stone Age. Although the center of the settlement was then Rainbergstraße, but even here there were remarkable finds. A found here a long time ago Celtic head sculpture of the La Tène period was walled long time on the Ross gate of the fortress.

In Roman times (see Iuvavum ) of the mountain fortress was secured. Against its end was at Nonnberg probably a first small church. The Ostrogoth Odoacer, who had deposed the last Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476, ordered in the year 488 the withdrawal of most of the Roman population. A remnant population ( perhaps Nonnberg? ) Has survived up to the time of St. Rupert and so carried the early Christian heritage. This is confirmed by grave finds in the space of the former Domgaragen at the foot of the mountain.

Middle Ages

From about 700 was on the Nonnberg already again a small castle, Castrum Castrum juvaviense called superior or whose fortifications incorporated the Nonnbergfuß and the mountain fortress. To 715 Saint Rupert at Nonnberg the Benediktinen Anif Palace. A little later, the first fortress was built on top of the mountain in the Investiture Controversy in 1077.

From Rainberg to Nonnberg were once along the south slope of the mountain fortress vineyards of cathedral chapter and the monastery of St. Peter, which are already mentioned in 1139 for the first time. At the foot of the mountain was the later fortified wine garden house in the Middle Ages. Even today, the fort old dilapidated stone terraces of the then vineyards are many places in the forest south visible. A natural leader in Salzburg in 1925 ( Hoffer and lambs Mayer) reported that in 1925 the fortress mountain " south side sporadically encountered the vine ."

Flora and Fauna

To the fortress is not uncommon romp jackdaws. The flight facing birds that live in monogamous lifelong marriages, build in the old fortress walls with vents their nests. This exposed exterior walls are hardly disturbed by humans and therefore are an ideal breeding ground with a lot of foresight.

Much rarer than the jackdaws are two winter guests of the high Alps to meet: the Alps and the Alps Braunelle wallcreeper, who both live in the summer of 1800 m above sea level. As a winter visitor is found in the Alps wallcreeper regularly on the mountain fortress in order abzuklettern the walls and rocks specifically for food.

The most common plants of the rocks and walls of the fortress mountain are the Mauerfarn and Schwarzgestielte Spleenwort that drive their roots into tiny, barely visible cracks. In addition, thrives here as a small hanging pillows with purple flowers the Zimbelkraut. The seeds infected the mother plant on long stalks purposefully into cracks and crevices where young plants can take root most likely.

The glass herb, a heat- loving herb from the Mediterranean should have been naturalized by the Roman forts out of hot places in Central Europe. Whether the glass herb stock at the monastery Nonnberg in ancient Roman times or until the medieval nuns came to Salzburg, is unclear.

Traffic

Default traffic opened up the mountain for the transport of people today by the funicular, and since the Middle Ages by a ropeway, the Reißzug. On a steep path of the visitor from the district or from Nonntal Kaiviertel passes through the Nonnbergtor in the monastery district of Benediktinen woman Nonnberg. From there the high road leads upwards to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Other paths lead from the Kapitelplatz either the Festungsgasse or the Michael -Haydn- stairs on the mountain, or from the south west over the Hans Sedlmayr - way or from the festival area on the Clemens- wood master staircase ( in Toscaninihof ) and Dr. , Herbert Klein way.

Famous people

The Austrian writer Gerhard Amanshauser was born in 1928 in a house on the fortress mountain ( access via the Brunnhausgasse ). In 2006, he died in the same house. The Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz also lives in the Brunnhausgasse.