CHAPTER VI
SALZBURG, ITS HISTORY AND ROMANCE
BEAUTIFUL OLD SALZBURG
Salzburg, though lying some little distance beyond the north-eastern borders of Tyrol, is so historic and delightful a city that many who visit the "Land of the Mountains" make a point of visiting it. They are wise to do so; for of all ancient towns in the Austrian empire few are more picturesque or pleasantly situated, and scarcely any more historically interesting. We have never known any one disappointed in Salzburg who was capable of appreciating beauty and romantic associations.
Many who have roved the world over have yielded to the charm of this old-time city, which even with its touch of modernity seems to preserve the quaint and the beautiful of long ago, and the atmosphere of the days when knights and armed men were the chief passers through its streets, and history was in the making.
It lies at the foot of the northern Alps, in an open and fertile valley somewhat reminding one of Innsbruck, save for its wonderful rock fortress Hohen-Salzburg situated nearly eighteen hundred feet above sea-level and completely dominating the town. There is the Kapuzingerberg in place of the Innsbruck Weiherberg, and its Rainberg in place of Berg Isel. It is by many considered the most interesting of all the ancient towns amid the German Alps.
Its beauty has been compared in turn by several well-known travellers with that of Venice, Naples, and even Constantinople. But to our thinking the parallel is not as exact as it should be to make it of value. There is no sea at Salzburg, and from that fact alone its approach is of necessity less picturesque. Indeed, the immediate approach from Tyrol by way of Innsbruck is somewhat unimpressive and gives little or no indication of the beauty and charm of the old town, though the line on its way passes some pretty scenery and affords some fine peeps of the Bavarian Alps.
Yet Salzburg, through the centre of which flows the silver-hued Salzach, is in a way as beautifully situated and as charming as any of the towns to which it has from time to time been likened. It lies in a delightfully well-watered and fertile plain dotted over with villages, ancient castles, and country seats of the Salzburg nobility, and encircled by wooded hills, which as they open out in a wider sweep to the south become higher and higher until deserving the description of mountains. Here they become a magnificent range of towering limestone peaks, through which are cleft fertile and delightful valleys leading into the neighbouring kingdom of Bavaria. In the valley of the Salzach there is no lack of variety as regards scenery. One has widespread meadows, almost throughout the year starred and gemmed with many coloured and sweet scented flowers, melting away into the woods which clothe the lower slopes of the environing hills, where the sombre hued pines give a darker note of green to the landscape; whilst yet above these in the distance are crags of grey and slate-coloured limestone, and crowning the whole vast snow-fields glistering white at noonday and taking on a tint of delicate rose colour at sundown.
In the town itself rise two considerable hills which serve to confer upon it a distinction of its own. One, the Kapuzingerberg, on the eastern side of the river, rises to the height of 800 feet, and the second, on the western side, to a height of nearly 450 feet above the city. It is between these two that the greater part of the old town lies. The steep sides of the Mönchsberg and the Gibraltar-like rock on which the old, grey fortress of Hohen-Salzburg stands are ivy-clad, and in the crevices and fissures wall-flowers, valerian, stone-crop, houseleek, and other flowering and lichen-like plants have taken root, whilst from the greater crevices and ledges wave feathery birches, and the lower slopes are made beautiful and shady by spreading beeches and odorous limes.
After several visits to this delightful city, which has an atmosphere entirely its own, and a charm difficult to describe, one is at a loss to set down in what it exactly differs from other similar towns. Part of the attraction it possesses is doubtless owing to its situation amid a stretch of lovely valley, and its romantic and historic past. But there yet remains that elusive quality which may be described as "the personality of the town," in addition to its geographical and historical claims upon one's interest and imagination.
Salzburg is not, however, merely the name of a town, but also of a province or "department" of Austria, to which empire it is the last added territory.[15] Lying between Tyrol (of which by many it is erroneously supposed to form a part) and the Salzkammergut or the lake region of Upper Austria, which commences in the near neighbourhood of the city, it was an independent episcopal principality until after the fall of Napoleon, not having been incorporated with the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the year 1816.
THE SALZACH VALLEY
The province consists chiefly of the mountainous district of the Salzach and its numerous tributaries, which wend their way from their sources amid the glaciers and snow-fields of the great peaks of the Hohen Tauern and lesser ranges to the plain where the Salzach itself ultimately flows into the Inn.
It is the great Hohen Tauern range with its gigantic snow-crowned peaks of the Gross Glockner, 12,460 feet; Wiesbachhorn, 11,710 feet; and Gross Venediger, 12,010 feet; Hohe Furlegg, 10,750 feet; Habachkopf, 9945 feet; and many other almost equally stupendous heights, which forms the southern boundary of the ancient Principality. The whole range is one of impressive grandeur, and possesses a picturesque beauty upon its lower slopes unrivalled by any other Alpine district. The foot of the Hohen Tauern is almost invariably clad with pine forests, which melt away into the higher slopes where blooms the bright pink "alpen rosen," whilst yet higher, and just below the line of perpetual snow, on rocky ledges and on slopes of coarse grass appear the silver-white, star-like flowers of the edelweiss. Above this zone of fresh green patches amid the grey and weather-stained rocks one passes into that exhilarating region of eternal snow and ice where dwells also eternal silence unbroken by the sound of birds, the hum of insects, or murmur of other living things.
Not only is the Hohen Tauern the region of Alpine giants, vast glaciers, and untrodden snow-fields, but as a natural consequence of these things it is that of many rushing torrents, stupendous waterfalls, and tinkling streamlets, all of which contribute to make the province it borders one of the best-watered in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Upwards of half a score of large streams flow into the Salzach; whilst of fertile valleys there are so many that to number them is difficult. Most are beautiful in the extreme; many are almost unknown to the ordinary tourist, who usually sticks to the well-worn paths and more frequented highways. In the famous Krimml Falls the Province of Salzburg possesses by common consent the finest waterfalls in the German Alps. They issue from the vast Krimml Glacier and descend over the edge of a pine-clad precipice in a cloud of drifting spray into the valley beneath, a distance of nearly 1500 feet, in three stupendous leaps, the highest fall in two leaps from a height of more than 450 feet.
Although, as we have before said, almost every valley of the Hohen Tauern range is notably beautiful, none excel in interest either pictorially or geologically the longest and widest, the Gastein Valley, with the fine falls some 500 feet in height near Bockstein, where the Gasteiner Ache, after passing through narrow gorges, plunges down into the valley, and thence flows through the broad, flat plain of Hof-Gastein to join the Salzach, passing on its way delightful Bad-Gastein, with its old town of interesting and picturesque wooden houses nestling on the eastern slopes of the valley, and the newer, with its hotels, churches, villas and other handsome buildings, peeping out from amid the pine-clad slopes or lying in the valley itself. It is a delightful though nowadays fashionable health resort, at which many tastes, both gay and quiet, are consulted.
From Lend at the foot of the Gastein Thal to pretty little St. Johann, where the Salzach flows northward, the river has passed without opposition quietly onward. But at St. Johann are some towering and remarkable limestone peaks, including those of the Tennen and Hagen Ranges, some of them attaining an altitude of 8000 feet; with the desolate-looking Steinerne Meer, 8800 feet on the western flank, and the Dachstein more than a thousand feet higher on the eastern. The river flows onward to a point where the two ranges we have mentioned coalesce. Here the great ravine known as the Lueg Pass, six miles in length and possessing fine scenery, forms a very fitting entrance to the beautiful valley of Golling, which gradually opens out from Hallein onwards till Salzburg itself is reached.
The valley of the Salzach on its eastern side is bordered by a range of pleasant green-clad heights and gentle slopes, with the Gaisberg, 4290 feet, a short distance to the north-east of Salzburg itself, dominating them, from which point the mountains gradually decrease in height. From Golling onwards, however, the western side of the valley is shut in by great peaks, some of which spread out their lower and rounded emerald green slopes towards the river. Of these impressive and beautiful mountains the Hohe Göll, 8275 feet, the majestic Watzmann, 9050 feet, the chief of the Berchtesgaden group, are the most noticeable. The cave-pierced and lofty, dome-shaped Untersberg, the highest point of which is the Berchtesgadener Hochtron of 6480 feet, standing isolated like a sentinel in the plain near the city.
SALZBURG IN ROMAN TIMES
Salzburg, beautiful and on occasion even radiant city of the plain as it is, ancient though many of its buildings are, is yet of greater antiquity than any of them. The town stands upon truly classic ground, and is associated with many events which have taken their places in European and even world-wide history. Here the Romans came in their all-conquering march of empire, and recognizing its fine position and the strategic importance of the hills which command the river along most of its course, they in due time built upon the plain Juvavum, on the road which linked up the Augusta Vindelicorum, modern Augsburg with Aquileia near Trieste.
There is little doubt nowadays, from the remains which have been discovered from time to time in the shape of implements of stone and bronze, weapons, household utensils, and ornaments, that the mines near Salzburg, which have since very early days down till comparatively recent times been of great commercial importance, were not only worked in the days of the Roman occupation, but also even in pre-historic times. There is little reason for doubt, indeed, that the Celts knew of, and used, the famous salt mines of the Dürnberg and the copper mines of the Mitterberg; whilst there is abundant evidence of various kinds of the working of the gold and silver mines of the Tauern district by the Romans during their occupation of the country.
MOZART'S HOUSE IN THE MAKART PLATZ
The exact date when Salzburg as a town or settlement first came into existence has not been determined; but it would seem probable that there was a settlement existing by the banks of the Salzach during, or just prior to, the first century of the Christian Era. The Celtic inhabitants of this settlement were not, however, able successfully to resist the north-eastern advance which had been made across Tyrol by the Roman legions, and thus it was that the Roman military station Juvavum was founded on a site which was of great convenience owing to its being at the entrance to the mountain passes and placed at the junction of the roads which led by various routes to all parts of Noricum. Here it was the Roman invader, having driven the Celtic owners of the soil after a brave but ineffectual resistance into mountain fastnesses of the surrounding country, established a military post with a fort which soon became a colony, and grew ultimately into the important town of Juvavum.
Of this occupation by the Romans, and of the establishment of the town by the banks of the Salzach, there are considerable relics surviving in the shape of excavated buildings and foundations, coins, ornaments, pottery, tesselated pavements, and portions of the roads which the Romans made.
The introduction of Christianity took place at a very early date, which would in part account for the ecclesiastical prominence which the province had in the Middle Ages, and even in later times. We are told that even as early as the year A.D. 472 St. Severinus, whilst journeying through Noricum, with which country Salzburg had been incorporated by the Romans, found numerous Christian churches and minsters established. A relic of these times still exists set in the perpendicular walls of the Mönchsberg, where high up, with some of its windows overshadowed by creepers and trees, is a very small church built into the mountain itself; reached by a dark, steep flight of steps cut in the rock, worn by the feet of countless generations, and leading to a cavern where stands an altar and a small cross. According, at least, to tradition this was the hiding-place to which the early Christians amongst the Roman inhabitants retired for security when celebrating the offices of the new faith. And it is here that St. Maximus is said to have suffered martyrdom.
From the effects of the troublous days which at last came to most outposts of Roman civilization Salzburg did not escape. Soon the hordes of Huns and Goths and others belonging to various Germanic tribes swept across and over the province as they did the land of Tyrol, and the town was sacked and burned, and the inhabitants put to the sword or led away into captivity. Thus in 477 the flourishing Roman settlement was literally wiped out by the Keruli under their leader, Odoaker, and of it few traces remained save some tesselated pavements, household utensils, and ornaments which ages afterwards from time to time have been uncovered.
THE RISE OF SALZBURG
The history of the town is obscure for many centuries after its destruction by the Teutonic barbarians; and for more than a hundred years the place remained waste and deserted, with the ruined buildings gradually becoming overgrown by trees and shrubs. Then, at the beginning of the sixth century, Theodo I., Duke of the Bojovarii, the founder of the Kingdom afterwards known as Bavaria, took possession of Salzburg and joined it to his own possessions. One account tells us that it was this Duke Theodo of Bavaria who, having become a Christian, summoned St. Rupert, after the latter had been driven from Worms, to Ratisbon with a view to his introducing Christianity into the Duchy. Tradition states that St. Rupert came to Juvavum about the year 582, or at the beginning of the seventh century, with the determination to make the spot his headquarters for the spread of the Christian faith. Duke Theodo appears to have made him a present of the ruined and deserted town and the country round about to the extent of an area of two miles square. Other estates and property were given him, including among many others those of Itzling, Oping (Upper Innsbruck), and a third part of the famous Hall Salt Spring. The Bishop set to work, and on the ruins of the old Roman settlement he soon established a town, building a convent and a church under the steep rocks of the Mönchsberg, where now the large Benedictine Convent and St. Peter's Church stand, in the latter of which the bones of the saint are said to lie buried.
The Convent of Nonnberg had many estates granted to it, and became rich. Bishop Rupert appears to have also begun to build new dwellings and to have cultivated the land; not neglecting in the meantime the object for which he had come, viz. the spread of Christianity. He built many churches, and was the means of forming a large number of Christian communities throughout the Duchy. He also extended the influence of the town of Salzburg over the surrounding district, and when he died in 623 he left behind him, where he had found ruins, a flourishing town with religious institutions of considerable importance. It was from this settlement that the most powerful and wealthiest ecclesiastical principality in Southern Germany was destined to spring, which, though possessed in turn by various nations, lasted as a spiritual Principality until 1802, when it was secularized and re-established as a temporal electorate.
After the coming of St. Rupert Salzburg gradually grew to be the chief centre of religious life and culture in the eastern region of the Alps. By the foundation of the Archbishopric of Bavaria by Charles the Great in 788, after the latter territory had been annexed and incorporated with his possessions, the city's importance steadily increased. But with an increase of status there came a corresponding extension and consolidation of the ecclesiastical dominion by which the political influence of the Archbishops of Salzburg grew until it finally justified them in assuming the title of Primates of Germany. Almost without exception during the Middle Ages the archbishops were militant priests. "They knew," we are told, "as well how to handle a sword as to say a Mass," and they often fought with distinction against the many enemies that the German Empire had in those troublous times when the various kingdoms of Eastern Europe were being evolved out of chaos, and were ever at war one with another. These prelates were also distinguished as skilled and astute diplomatists, capable of holding their own and adding to the power and privileges of their Church whenever an opportunity for so doing presented itself.
Under Bishop Virgil (747 to 784) the power of Salzburg was considerably extended eastward. The new Cathedral was built, and several other districts were brought under the subjection of the bishopric. It was Bishop Virgil's successor, Arno (785 to 821), a personal friend of Charlemagne, who, in the last year of the eighth century, was invested by Pope Leo III. with the Pallium and installed first Archbishop of Salzburg.
To Arno's labours the town and the country owe much, for under his skilful and wise guidance not only did the former flourish and grow, with the other settlements which had come into existence, but by his great power of initiative the life of the principality itself was directed into prosperous and progressive channels. His immediate successors greatly increased the power and influence of the Church; whilst at the same time they did not omit to extend their non-spiritual power by the acquisition of other territory, and by means of the mining industries they became very rich and powerful.
EARLY RULERS
The Archbishops of Salzburg soon by this means gained a great and distinguished place amongst the German princes, which they retained until the power of the Emperors began to wane in consequence of differences with the Popes, to the latter of whom the Archbishops, as a rule, gave their support in the disputes that arose. Into these matters it is not necessary to enter deeply, but it was in consequence of them that Conrad I., Count of Abinberg, took the part of the Pope and caused the country to be greatly disturbed. During his reign the Abbey of St. Peter was granted as a residence to the Archbishop of Salzburg, and a new building was soon afterwards erected close by for the purpose. It was in the reign of this same Conrad I. that the Cathedral of Salzburg was destroyed by fire on May 4, 828, as was also a very large portion of the city. Both the Cathedral and the portion of the town which had been burnt down were rebuilt with even greater magnificence than before. But they were destined to once more be destroyed. Three centuries later, in the year 1167, a quarrel arose between Conrad II. and Frederick Barbarossa, because the latter refused to invest the former with the temporal power, and pronounced against him the ban of the Empire. Barbarossa ordered Salzburg and the country round about to be over-run and laid waste by the Counts Plain-Mittersill. For some time the city and its strong fortress resisted successfully; but on April 5, 1167, it was captured and once more burnt to the ground.
The successor of Conrad, Albert III., a son of King Ladislav of Bohemia, also came into conflict with the Emperor, and shared a similar fate to his predecessors; but during the reigns of the immediately succeeding archbishops peace and prosperity were established, and under Eberhard II., who was distinguished as a most able and brilliant administrator as well as a great churchman, peace and tranquillity once more reigned.
During the next century Salzburg was involved in political disputes and took part in the Battle of Muhldorf, on September 28, 1322, fighting on the side of Frederick the Schöne, Duke of Austria, who was taken prisoner. In consequence of which the principality not only lost large numbers of its chief nobles and knights, but also was involved in heavy monetary loss in the payment of its share of a war indemnity.
Immediately following this period of unrest came another distinguished by the erection of new and handsome buildings and the enlargement of the bounds of the city, and also strengthening of the Castle on the Mönchsberg. To Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach (1495 to 1519) must be given the credit of attaining absolute supremacy, and with his occupation of the See may be said to have commenced the most distinguished period in the history of the city. Leonhard did not attain to this position, however, entirely without guile, for to tell the truth the Salzburg citizens, who seemed even in those mediæval times to have possessed a love of freedom and spirit of independence which did them credit, having become restive under the ecclesiastical domination and tyranny wished to make the town a free imperial city. Leonhard, however, had determined otherwise, and so under pretence of inviting the burgomaster and twenty town councillors to his palace to give them a state banquet, he promptly arrested them on their arrival and threw them into the castle dungeons. He then succeeded in taking away the ancient rights of the town, upon the annulment of which he had set his mind. But although Archbishop Leonhard ruled his secular as well as his ecclesiastical subjects with a rod of iron, he did much to improve and beautify the city, adding greatly to the strength and size of Hohen-Salzburg, and also improving the method of working the mines, particularly those in Gastein and Rauris. This was, of course, more directly to his benefit than that of the miners, yet in the end was pleasing to the country in general in that the Archbishop drew from the mines a revenue sufficient to permit him to erect many handsome buildings, to improve the roads, and to encourage art and agriculture.
THE REFORMATION
During the Archiepiscopate of his successor Mathäus Lang von Wellenburg, from 1519 to 1540, many stirring events took place, not only in the city of Salzburg but throughout the length and breadth of the principality as well. The faith of Luther had been introduced into Salzburg and had met with great success among all classes of the population, especially that of the miners. Even some of the priests and officials of the Cathedral itself were suspected of being favourable to, and even of extending, the new doctrines. At first the Archbishop tried to combat the heretical tendencies of his subjects by kindness and indulgence; but finding these methods fruitless, he called in the aid of foreign mercenaries, chiefly from Tyrol, garrisoned Hohen-Salzburg strongly with them and with followers upon whose loyalty he could depend, and taking the town unawares, forced the inhabitants to submit and to surrender their privileges.
This event was followed by various acts of violence directed against the adherents of the reformed faith, which so exasperated the population that in May, 1525, a rebellion broke out in all parts of the principality. The Archbishop seeing that the situation was taking a serious turn, addressed an urgent appeal for help to Duke William at Munich, which, however, was not answered. Shortly after, thousands of miners and peasants, having won several skirmishes in the country districts, advanced to Salzburg, where they were joined by many of the inhabitants, and promptly set to work to besiege the Archbishop in the fortress, which they continued to do (failing to gain an entrance) until August 15th, when Ludwig of Bavaria arrived with a strong force, and a truce favourable to the peasants was agreed upon. This arrangement, however, was not held to, and in consequence a fierce rebellion broke out again in the following year, but was successfully and cruelly suppressed by forces under the command of the Archduke Ferdinand, supplemented by those of the Suabian League.
Although the doctrines of Luther continued to make headway, and religious disturbances still occurred, the latter were not of a serious character; but some half a century later the famous Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, also known for brevity as Wolf Dietrich, on returning from Rome, where he had been to receive the pallium, or ornamental band of white wool worn around the shoulders, which all archbishops at that time had to receive on their appointment before they were empowered to carry out the duties of their office, issued his famous edict on July 9, 1588, for the extermination of the heretics. In consequence of which there was a severe persecution of those who had adopted the Lutheran faith, with great confiscations of their lands and other property. Other acts of this famous Archbishop, including an imposition on salt, the obtaining and making of which formed a very important and remunerative industry, brought about serious friction between him and some of his subjects, and ultimately led on two occasions to his military occupation of the salt district by means of mercenaries. On the first these forces were defeated and driven out by those of Duke William of Bavaria; and on the second the Archbishop's action led to the conquest and occupation of Salzburg by the Duke Maximilian himself, and the ultimate imprisonment and dethroning of Wolf Dietrich on March 7, 1612. He was never released, although efforts were made to obtain freedom and pardon for him, and died in his cell in Hohen-Salzburg five years later.
CATHOLIC PERSECUTIONS
After the Peace of Westphalia, October 24th, Salzburg was made an independent and sovereign principality, and the archbishops, the Chapter, and various other authorities, set to work to bring about improvements in the Civil and Ecclesiastical offices and organizations of the country, and to improve the condition of the inhabitants by better regulations of taxes, the criminal law, etc., and to complete the building of the city and improvement of the existing portions of it by the repaving of the streets and instituting better sanitary arrangements. But notwithstanding the undoubted benefits conferred in the way we have mentioned upon the inhabitants, the clerical party maintained a rigorous persecution of the Protestants, and in consequence the years 1684-85 witnessed large emigrations of Lutherans, including great numbers of the Hallein miners.
These persecutions were followed half a century later by those of the Archbishop Leopold Anton Freiherr von Fermian, who summoned the Jesuits into the country to aid in extirpating the Protestants. These priests succeeded in stirring up further dissensions between the Catholics and the Lutherans, and cruel persecutions, accompanied by torture and imprisonment, followed. The Archbishop, finding the Jesuits had not succeeded in reducing the country to uniformity of religion or a more peaceful state, issued on the last day of October, 1731, the famous emigration edict by which the Protestants were to be deprived of all their property and their rights as citizens, and to be driven from the principality. The result was the forming of the celebrated Salzbund, by which the followers of the reformed faith banded themselves together and swore to defend it, and as a token they licked a block of salt placed for the purpose on a table, which is still preserved at Schwarzach, where the League was formed.
In the end, in consequence of Archbishop Fermian's edict, upwards of 30,000 people emigrated, and as was the case with the Huguenots of France they formed by far the most able, industrious, and intelligent portion of the community, and the consequences of their emigration are even felt at the present time. By the expulsion of the Protestants, many of whom were miners, we are told "the mining industry of Salzburg received its death blow, the prosperity of the country was greatly diminished, and the free national and civic life was destroyed." The greater number of these emigrants eventually settled in Prussian Lithuania, where they were warmly and hospitably received. Others went to Bavaria, and Suabia, and a few even to England, some of the latter of whom ultimately crossed the Atlantic and settled in Georgia, where in the town of Ebenezer there still exists a colony of their descendants.
The immediate effect of the emigration of these skilled artisans and workers was felt both in the city of Salzburg and the principality. Workshops, which had hitherto been busy hives of industry, deserted by their former occupants, failed to find new tenants, and fell into gradual decay, or were turned to other less remunerative uses. As had been the case with the Huguenots so was it with the émigrés of Salzburg; their places could not be filled nor their loss replaced.
Salzburg during the wars of Frederick the Great against Bavaria and France was frequently occupied by one or other of the contending nations, and was reduced to a state of poverty and distress from which it was a long time recovering. To such a wretched condition were the inhabitants of the city and principality reduced that there was serious danger at one time of the latter being secularized. But under the firmer and more beneficent rule of Hieronymus, Count of Coloredo-Wallsee, the last reigning Archbishop (1772 to 1803), several beneficial reforms were brought about in the administration of the country relating to its finances, police, agriculture, and other departments. But, notwithstanding these changes, ecclesiastical domination in Salzburg was destined to come to an end speedily, and at the Peace of Campo Formio, October 17, 1797, France by a secret treaty agreed to have the Archbishopric of Salzburg transferred to the Emperor Francis II.
NAPOLEONIC WARS
In the years 1800 to 1802 the principality was once more the scene of French invasions, and suffered severely not only from the ravages consequent upon the battles fought between the French and the Imperialists, but also from the heavy contributions of money and stores levied upon the people. The whole country soon became in a chaotic condition, and the Archbishop at last fled with his portable property and the most valuable treasures, leaving his See to its fate. The Imperial forces entered Salzburg under the command of Count Meerveldt on August 19, 1802, the General proclaiming that he took possession of the country in the name of the Archduke Ferdinand of Tuscany.
Thus Salzburg ceased to be an independent spiritual principality and became the secular electorate, which it has remained ever since.
On March 11th of the following year the fugitive archbishop resigned the secular power. Although there is no doubt that this change was welcomed by the people at large, who looked forward to reforms and greater stability of government, it was not found possible to effect the former at once. The still unsettled and warlike period in which Ferdinand I. came to rule over Salzburg was very detrimental to any radical reform or change of administration. By the Peace of Pressberg, December 26, 1805, Salzburg was transferred to Austria, and four years later passed into the possession of Bavaria by the Treaty of Vienna, and so remained until 1816.
It was during the Napoleonic Wars that the Salzburgers, like the Tyrolese under Andreas Hofer, rose and fought for their country and for the Emperor of Austria. Quite a number of serious engagements took place, in the Lueg Pass, and the Mendling, and near Unken and Melleck, leading naturally enough to great poverty and devastation. Ultimately by the Treaty of April 14, 1816, Salzburg passed into the possession of Austria, and on May 1, 1816, the Imperial Commissioners entered into possession amidst the enthusiastic rejoicing of the whole population.
This state of affairs lasted till 1850, when once more Salzburg became an independent Austrian Crown land, and eleven years later it was granted a separate government and a Diet. Since then the city as well as the province has prospered under the wise and enterprising rule of its present administration, and has become thoroughly incorporated in spirit as well as upon paper with the great Empire of which it forms an independent part.
To its Archbishops of the sixteenth century Salzburg owed and still owes much. They were nearly all of them great and interesting personalities who not only influenced the civil as well as the religious life and evolution of the town, but had, in addition, not a little to do with the appearance it gradually assumed during the period we have mentioned. Under their rule Salzburg was to a large extent modernized. Many thirteenth- and fourteenth-century buildings were pulled down, to be replaced by much more magnificent if not more picturesque and interesting structures. It was then that the spirit of the Renaissance swept over the Alps from Italy, and in its train came the desire for magnificence in architecture, in entertainments, and in the dress and life of the Salzburg nobility.
The Archbishops and ecclesiastical inhabitants also fell willing victims to the desire for extravagance and ostentatious display. Indeed, the former were, as one authority says, "the true Renaissance Sovereigns of the Italian school, who were selfish as regards their politics, and not at all particular regarding the means by which they attained their ends." It must, however, be allowed that though by no means unwilling for worldly enjoyments and pageantry, notwithstanding the fact that they professed in their religion the severer doctrines of Ignatius Loyola, they were worthy patrons and encouragers of art, science, and literature, and were animated by the desire to leave a lasting memorial of themselves and their beliefs in splendid ecclesiastical buildings. In Salzburg one finds their records on all hands, in coats-of-arms and tablets on which are recorded their names and deeds, for the benefit and instruction of those who succeeded them.
ONE OF THE FINEST DOORS OF THE STATE APARTMENTS IN THE FORTRESS, SALZBURG
REBUILDING THE CITY
During the period of which we speak the character and appearance of the city was almost entirely changed. The ancient mediæval buildings were pulled down, and replaced by magnificent palaces in which the nobility and ecclesiastical dignitaries dwelt in splendour and ease. Churches were erected in such numbers as to be almost unequalled in any other city of similar size. Most of these still remain, making Salzburg a place of spires and domes and handsome churches strangely picturesque and deeply interesting.
Seen either from the ridge of the Mönchsberg, the Kapuzingerberg, or from the castle walls, especially at sundown on a summer's evening, Salzburg presents a picture of great beauty and colour, and one which is not easily forgotten.
As was not unnatural with the secularization of the power ruling the Province the capital suffered heavily. For a time both its prosperity and its intellectual life underwent eclipse. For almost half a century its energies seemed to lie dormant, and it was only when the line connecting Munich with Vienna by way of Salzburg was constructed in 1860 that it woke once more to take an important place amongst the towns of north-western Austria. From that period till to-day the place has made steady progress.
Till the middle of the last century the city occupied a comparatively restricted area within the old walls. And as a direct consequence of the numerous churches, convents, and other ecclesiastical buildings occupying a great deal of the space available the townsfolk were compelled to crowd their dwellings together, and to build the many storied houses which one finds in the older portion of the town in the neighbourhood of the Herrngasse, Sigmund-Haffnergasse, and Getreidegasse. It is in these narrow and gloomy—though undoubtedly picturesque—streets, in the architecture of which one can in many instances trace Italian influence, that the great part of the population dwelt, and much of the trade of the town was done.
With more modern ideas the distaste for such confinement among the more ambitious and well-to-do of the commercial and artisan classes became manifest, and when at length the old walls were in places pulled down a new suburb arose on the other side of the river—as it did at Innsbruck—in the neighbourhood of the railway station, possessing wide modern streets, finer shops, and palatial villa residences, and also smaller houses for the occupation of the working-class community.
In this portion of the town one finds not only some of the best hotels, but the Kurhaus with its pleasant gardens (closely adjoining the Mirabell Garden), the fine Theatre, and the imposing church of St. Andreas in the Gothic style. Opposite the railway station, set in a recess of foliage in the garden adjoining the Hôtel de l'Europe, is the famous statue of the Kaiserin Elizabeth, a pilgrimage shrine for most visitors to the town. The statue itself has been described as "simple but beautiful." To us it has always seemed by no means an adequate or even very skilful representation of a beautiful and queenly personality. The pose is not particularly happy, and the whole has to our mind a "doll-like" effect.
A QUIET PASTURE
As time went by Salzburg reclaimed much ground from the rocky bed of the swiftly flowing river by confining the stream within more restricted limits. In former times, when the town was enclosed with walls, there was no such necessity, and the Salzach took its own course, encroaching much upon the lower-lying land along its banks. But nowadays on this reclaimed ground shady avenues of trees have been planted, which give a charming and distinctive character to this part of the city. Here, too, are some fine villas, where not so very many years ago was waste or wooded land, set amid trees and made pleasant by beautiful gardens, in which there seems to bloom a profusion of flowers all the year round.
The position and future prosperity of the town as a tourist resort was assured when Salzburg became the starting-point of a second main line of railway leading to Innsbruck via Kitzbühel, and the picturesque Unter-Inn Thal, and the centre of a number of branch lines.
It is through these modern developments that the life of Salzburg has so materially changed even within the memory of those who first visited it but, comparatively speaking, a few years ago. From a town of ecclesiastical and almost mediæval aloofness from the outside world, and from one which had for a considerable period seen its growth arrested and its life stagnant, it has sprung into being as a favourite summer and winter resort not merely for tourists, but also for those to whom the older portion of the town, its many historic buildings, castle, and fine churches, proves attractive.
SALZBURG'S ANCIENT FORTRESS
The most prominent of all buildings in Salzburg, and the one which has for most visitors the greatest attraction, is the fine old fortress of Hohen-Salzburg set high above the older town upon a tree-enshrouded and rocky spur of the Mönchsberg.
The ancient fortress, which has witnessed so many stirring events within its walls, and from which past generations of inhabitants have looked down upon almost equally dramatic and stirring doings in the town below, that throughout the ages defied capture, and at last came to be looked upon as impregnable, was founded nearly eight and a half centuries ago by Archbishop Gebhard.
As the centuries went by many additions were made to the original buildings, and the present castle dates in its chief portions from the last few years of the fifteenth and the first few years of the sixteenth centuries. These additions were principally the work of Leonard von Keutschach, Archbishop of Salzburg at the close of the Middle Ages. He was one of the great "building" archbishops to whose energies and enterprise the town at various periods owed so much. Of peasant origin he was not ashamed of his humble birth, and, being gifted with a sense of humour, chose a turnip as his armorial bearings. So frequently, indeed, are representations of this vegetable met with on escutcheons in various parts of the town, that the remark of one traveller who observed that "the Salzburgers appear to have sprung out of the earth" may be held excused.
Severe looking as is the fine old fortress (now given over to the uses of barracks), in whose courtyards princes, archbishops, nobles, and many famous men of the past centuries have walked, it was, however, not merely a strong bulwark of defence, truly "ein feste burg" dominating the town and plain, but also a palace. Although the castle has been stripped of much of its magnificence there happily still remain traces of it in the so-called Fürstenzimmer (state apartments), which formerly occupied by the rulers of the Province were furnished and decorated with all the splendour which marked the most lavish period of Renaissance influence. Chief amongst the relics of the latter are the beautiful and delicately carved panelling, the gilt work, and the richly carved and moulded ceilings of the principal apartments. In wandering through these now almost deserted rooms one is tempted to conjure up the scenes of magnificence they must have witnessed. Tragedy, comedy, chivalry, hate, joy, sorrow, success, and failure, all, the often lurid though magnificent gamut of life in the Middle Ages, must have been welded into the very fabric and atmosphere of this impressive and deeply interesting building. Among the chief relics of bygone splendour and pomp of circumstance there remains the beautiful and it is said unique Majolica stove, a truly wonderful example of Gothic ceramic art.
There are many interesting and quaint corners within the triple line of walls, which shut off access to the castle and proved so useful on many an occasion in former times, united with the fortifications of the Mönchsberg known as the Burgerwehr; but few excel in picturesqueness the old courtyard with its shady and famous Linden tree, ancient well, and time-worn walls. Here, as one lingers, towards sundown one sometimes hears the sweet-toned though halting notes of the organ within the tower playing some familiar hymn tune. The trembling notes, like those of an old singer whose voice has become feeble but has retained much of its sweetness, float out upon the still evening air with a mystic appeal which few that have heard them can, we think, have failed to have felt. For ourselves it is one of the lasting and unforgettable memories of Salzburg as well as of its castle.
Nowadays the cable railway takes one to the summit in a few minutes, and one is spared the fatigue of the long climb up by the Nonnberg. The old Reckturm, in the dungeons of which unlucky prisoners were confined, and in the tower itself the terrible instruments of torture were kept and the torture chamber was situated, nowadays has a much more pleasant office to fulfil as an excellent "look out" place from which to view the widely extended prospect of the town and Salzach valley towards the north.
HOHEN-SALZBURG'S SIEGES
Many an assault was made during the Middle Ages and succeeding eras upon the old grey fortress, seldom resulting in anything save disaster or disappointment for the attacking force. Even the peasants, who, during the terrible rebellion of 1525, made repeated attacks upon the castle with the utmost fury and determination, failed to accomplish their object of capturing the stronghold, Matthew Land, the then Archbishop, and the high ecclesiastics who had taken refuge within its unscalable walls, to whom short shrift would have been given by the peasant leaders. For ages the Church had trodden the peasantry under foot, and in the Peasants' Rebellion there were terrible reprisals. But although the insurgents came near capturing Hohen-Salzburg they did not succeed. Their appliances were too primitive for successful assault, and their shots did little or no damage to the strong thick walls or buildings. On a marble column in the castle are to be seen the marks left by a cannon ball, which was one of the few that succeeded in entering the castle, and in this case it was through a window! A century later, during the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648 which devastated the whole of the then German Empire, waged between the Evangelic Union under the Elector Palatine and the Catholics led by Maximilian the Great Duke of Bavaria, Salzburg, doubtless on account of the fact that its fortress was esteemed impregnable, was one of the few places left at peace and unmolested. We have already mentioned the fact that the Archbishops were not only exceedingly powerful ecclesiastics but also great diplomatists, and there is little doubt but that to their clever policy must also be attributed the town's immunity from attack during that troublous and universally disturbed period.
Of the many distinguished ecclesiastics who have occupied the See of Salzburg as its Archbishops, the most interesting and perhaps the most important were two, separated one from the other by but a few years. One was Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (1587-1611?) and the other Paris von Lodron.
BUILDERS OF RENOWN
Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, from having received his education in Rome, then the centre of Art and culture, came to Salzburg steeped not alone in the traditions of Italian Art but anxious to impress upon the town his knowledge and taste. He found an old Roman and neither handsome nor picturesque Cathedral, dating from the eighth century, in place of churches such as he had been accustomed to in Italy, ornate and beautiful. He is reputed to have been at no pains to conceal his distaste for the building, and when a few years before his death it was destroyed during one of the destructive fires, there were those who even accused the Archbishop of having himself set the church on fire, or at least of having instigated others to do so. But there is little truth in this story, though the Archbishop's satisfaction at the destruction of the ancient, inconvenient, and unornamental structure seems beyond question. That he fully intended to erect upon the site one of the finest churches north of the Italian frontier there is little doubt, but, alas! for human aims, he was not destined even to see the foundations laid.
To him, notwithstanding his despotic character, his restless disposition, his shameful intrigue with the beautiful Salome Alt, the city of Salzburg owes a great deal, for he did much to transform an unpicturesque and dirty town with narrow mediæval streets into one of the finest cities of Germany. Many of the beautiful buildings, including the Gabriel Chapel, the Chapter House, the Neubau, and the arcades of the Sebastian Cemetery, owed their existence to his artistic taste and desire for improvement.
It was to Paris von Lodron, the founder of the University which was dissolved in 1810 during the Bavarian occupation, his second successor, fell the task as well as the honour of giving to Salzburg a Cathedral worthy of it and of its long line of famous Archbishops and many historical memories. The original plan, which historians tell us would have resulted in a church of such magnificence that it would have been almost unrivalled by that of any in Europe, had to be considerably modified for several reasons, chief amongst which were considerations of cost and space. The former was rendered obligatory from the heavy expense entailed in keeping up the fortifications of the city during the time (the Thirty Years' War) the Cathedral was in course of construction. However, notwithstanding these circumstances, Paris von Lodron's work, which occupies a splendid position in the midst of three large squares, was designed chiefly by an Italian architect named Santino Solari (possibly from plans by Scamozzi of Florence), assisted by others in the late Renaissance style, is one of the most magnificent churches in Austria, although the stucco ornamentation is of a rather florid character. From the exterior, which is rather plain and severe, although it possesses a fine façade built of Unterberg marble, it is impossible to gain any conception of the charm and even splendour of the building. But immediately upon entering it, one is impressed with its beautiful proportions, and the resemblance to a marked degree in the general plan to that of St. Peter's, Rome. Indeed, there is little doubt as to the source from which Solari drew much of his inspiration, although due credit must be given to him for original details, the proportions, and general beauty of effect.
The treasury of the church is worth seeing, as it is rich in relics of bygone ages, including an exquisite seventeenth-century monstrance encrusted with 1800 precious stones, rich vestments, and a fine crozier set with gems; and none should miss the interesting fourteenth-century bronze Romanesque font which stands in one of the side chapels to the left of the entrance.
In its Cathedral Salzburg possesses a gem of architectural beauty which has been the admiration of generations of architects and students, and (as one authority says) "has probably provided more inspiration for the artist and the student of architecture than any other church north of the Italian Alps."
On the Residenz-Platz, the centre of which is adorned by a beautiful fountain nearly fifty feet in height dating from the latter part of the seventeenth century, consisting of a colossal figure of Atlas surrounded by equally colossal hippopotami, the work of Anton Dario, is situated the ancient palace of the Archbishops, formerly known as the Residenz, now the Imperial Residence. This fine palace which was erected at various dates from the end of the sixteenth down to the first two decades of the eighteenth century contains many traces of the splendour which characterized the larger buildings which were erected by ecclesiastics at the time the influence of the Renaissance was at its height. The ceilings and wall of the principal salons and halls are especially notable, and in some cases are most elaborately decorated. The Government Offices which are opposite the Residenz although known as the Neugebäude (possibly because they included the Post and Telegraph office), in reality date, at any rate in part, from the reign of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, although they have been modernized, altered, and added to from time to time. In the octagonal tower was placed, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, a beautiful carillon, the work of a watchmaker named Sauter at the commencement of the seventeenth century, known as the Glockenspiel, which chimes thrice daily at 7 a.m., 11 a.m., and 6 p.m.
The Archbishops of Salzburg were not only in past ages ecclesiastics and diplomatists but also sportsmen. Most, indeed, seem to have been great lovers of horses. Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Salzburg, built some magnificent stables adorned with marble on the slopes of the Mönchsberg; attached to them were a covered riding school for use in winter, and another open-air one for summer use. Though the stables themselves are now barracks, the open-air school is still one of the sights of the town. In the side of the Mönchsberg were hewn in 1693 three great galleries for the accommodation of spectators of the sports in the summer riding school; they have long ago been overgrown with ivy and creepers which add greatly to their picturesqueness, but are still occasionally used for the purpose for which they were originally constructed.
In the winter riding school there is an interesting ceiling fresco depicting a joust or tournament dating from the last decade of the seventeenth century.
Several of the Archbishops of Salzburg appear to have had a liking for rock excavations, and the Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach was one of the number. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, in 1767 to be precise, he constructed the Neuthor, a tunnel through the solid rock some four hundred and fifty feet in length, which it took two years to make. It pierced through the Mönchsberg and thus united the suburb of Riedenberg with the rest of the town. At the Riedenberg end is a statue to St. Sigismund in commemoration of the Archbishop, who placed his own medallion at the town end of the tunnel with the Latin inscription "Te saxa loquntur" (The very stones praise thee) above it.
THE SCHLOSS MIRABELL
To the Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, or rather to his passion for the beautiful daughter of a Salzburg merchant whose name was perhaps not inappropriately Salome, the charming Schloss Mirabell chiefly owes its existence. Here (so the story goes) the beautiful Salome Alt was installed as mistress, amid splendour and lavish expenditure befitting a King's favourite. For her were constructed and laid out delightful gardens, with fine terraces, shady walks, wide lawns of exquisitely "velvety" turf, the like of which we have seldom seen even in the "grass" counties of England; quaintly shaped flower-beds, fountains and ponds, mazes and avenues of fine trees. For her, too, were numerous groups of statuary, and single figures of a mythological and artistic character installed. Some of these are of considerable merit; and few are without distinctive decorative value in the surroundings amid which they have been placed.
In the gardens themselves there is a constant succession of delightful flowers all the year round. On the occasion of our last visit the sweetly scented linden avenue was in full bloom, whilst roses were in profusion—we were told they bloom almost all the year round in this favoured and beautiful spot—and the jasmine, orange trees, and many other beautiful and homely flowers perfumed the summer air, and spread out in a riot of colour on every hand. Aloes, palms, Portugal laurels, daphne, and other shrubs afford relief to the eye, and in the background, towering high above the quietude of this old-fashioned garden, looms the vast and commanding Hohen-Salzburg, with its roofs and pinnacles shimmering and glancing in the sunshine of the upper air.
In the gardens are also the interesting aviary of the Salzburg Society for the Protection of Birds, and the former Summer Theatre near the French Garden with the grassy stage and wings formed of "trimly" clipped hedges.
The mansion itself suffered severely from a fire in 1818, but the Marble Hall and staircase which escaped are well worth seeing, as are also the decorations of several of the older rooms.