Hohensalzburg Fortress

Today we visited one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. Construction began in 1077 as the Salzburg archbishops sided with the Pope during the Investiture Controversy. So imposing are its fortifications that the castle was only attacked once in its entire history. This was in 1525 during the peasants' revolt early in the protestant revolution. The castle was further strengthened in the 30 Years War (1618-1648) but was never attacked. It was finally surrendered to Napolean without a fight and thereafter served mainly as a barracks. Here is the link to all of our pictures from the day.


In this picture (below) we are standing on the top of the square tower that you see on the left in the picture above, the one with the flag. I promise, the mountains are not a fake backdrop.

This is the courtyard inside the fortress. It is very reminiscent of Tolkien's Gondor. In fact, we ran into one thing after another that seemed to come right out of the Lord of the Rings, including a ringwraith...