Tyrol and Its People

by Clive Holland

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.