Salzburg

Title

Salzburg

Description

Decorative total view of the city of Salzburg at the river Salzach and the fortress Hohenzalzburg.

dated 1897

Artist

Angerer/Arndt

Historical Description

The territory of the town has been continuously inhabited since the Neolithic period until today. Since the Battle of Mühldorf in 1322, the archbishopric was at enmity with the motherland Bavaria. As a result, Salzburg became an independent archbishopric in the Roman-German Empire. The economic prosperity of the city in the 15th century led to a self-confident bourgeoisie with increasing rights and duties. Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach, who was economically very successful, ended this autonomy by force. A few years after Martin Luther's posting of the theses, the majority of the town's population was close to Protestantism; the unbending Protestants were then all expelled from the country by 1590. In 1525, rebellious squires and peasants laid siege to the fortress of Hohensalzburg, where Archbishop Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg had entrenched himself. Around 1600, the archdiocese was one of the richest principalities in the Roman-German Empire thanks to salt and gold mining. Paris von Lodron succeeded in keeping Salzburg out of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) through a clever policy of neutrality. The city was developed into one of the best fortified cities in Europe. In 1803, by order of Napoleon Bonaparte, Salzburg became a secularized electorate. In 1805, together with Berchtesgaden, it was annexed to the new Empire of Austria, and in 1810, it was reincorporated into the Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1816, with the Treaty of Munich, most of the province of Salzburg again fell to the Austrian Empire and thus under Habsburg rule.