Bürglstein (Salzburg)

Bürglstein
Bürglstein seen from the Nonnberg
height	451  m above sea level A.
location	Salzburg , Austria
Dominance	0.16 km →  Kapuzinerberg
Notch height	21 m ↓  Arenberg Castle
Coordinates	47 ° 47 '59 "  N , 13 ° 3' 31"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 47 '59 "  N , 13 ° 3' 31"  E
rock	dolomite

The Bürglstein is a very small town mountain or a hill in Salzburg in front of the Kapuzinerberg in a southerly direction . It is separated from the Kapuzinerberg by Arenbergstrasse, and geologically the Bürglstein belongs to the Kapuzinerberg. With a height of 451 m, it is occasionally seen as the smallest city mountain. On the hill, which is now covered with forest, there are still remnants of an earlier garden.

history

The first documented mentions of the hill come from 1167 and 1193 in the form "Pirgelin (e)" and from the years 1230/38 shortened as "Pirgel". The form "Pirgla" has been handed down from 1432. The name goes back to the Old High German word for mountain in its diminutive (ending -lin = -lein ) as a small mountain. The addition -stein became popular in the 15th century. At that time, stone was primarily used to refer to rocks and rocky slopes. Such rocky slopes lead in Salzburg from the Inner Stone via the Outer Stone to the Bürglstein. Next to the small hill there was a small house of the same name in the 14th century, which was rebuilt as a castle around 1600. In 1814 this castle burned down with its main wing and servants' wing next to it and was then rebuilt on the preserved parts of the wall. After 1861, Princess Sophie Arenberg had these two parts of the palace joined together by creating a representative central wing. This is how the current Arenberg Castle was created .

In 1791 the art gardener Josef Rosenegger bought the area of ​​the Bürglstein including the Bürglstein Castle (today Arenberg Castle) from Archbishop Count Colloredo . His father Johann Rosenegger had already run a small gardening business with glass houses in which he grew grapes and tropical fruits. Josef Rosenegger had been trained as a landscape gardener in Hellbrunn and immediately after the purchase began to redesign and expand a park. He also built a "wine tavern", built a museum for his Roman finds and laid out walking paths lined with sculptures and resting places. With its steep slopes in this room, the Bürglstein still encroached upon the free and wide bed of the unregulated Salzach . There was also an idyllic landing place for the boats on the Salzach. His ornate “pleasure garden” was a must for every Salzburg traveler back then. Friedrich von Spaur wrote in a letter from 1803:

"Rosenegger's (...) exquisitely laid out garden on the Bürgelstein is remarkable because of its good fruit and vegetables, and because of the botanical facilities which the businessman Ranftl brought up for use in that district for friends of foreign plants. The shady paths that meander up to the summit of the Bürgelstein, defrosted by the floods of the Salza, are charming. I always like to stay on its back, in the Gloriette built there, and with the varied views of the area that it offers. This blissful place has been created especially for lively societies who want to forget the troubles of the day with the harmony of lovely music or with a happy soupe. "

historical Bürglstein garden around 1830

While working in the garden, Joseph Rosenegger discovered a burial ground as early as 1791 and also "several well-preserved ash pots and lamps" ". When she visited his pleasure garden in 1804, he donated some coins and pieces of jewelry to the Emperor Consort Maria Theresa when she visited his pleasure garden. Bernhard Stark, curator of the Rosenegger asked the royal antiquarian bookshop in Munich for permission to dig on the site and was actually able to uncover some urn graves. The finds met with great public interest. Christian August Vulpius , Goethe's brother-in-law , wrote in 1820 the magazine “Curiositaeten der physisch-literarisch -artistic-historical past and present for pleasant entertainment for educated readers ”a long contribution to the Salzburg finds.

Rosenegger began a lively trade in Roman artifacts. In order to meet the strong demand, he did not shy away from producing sometimes adventurous forgeries made of clay and alabaster. When Emperor Franz I visited the Bürglstein in 1816, he was skeptical about the authenticity of the finds. However, Rosenegger managed to get King Ludwig I of Bavaria to buy up the finds in 1833 and 1837 , which was very much regretted in Salzburg by “patriotic circles”. In Munich, the forgeries were soon identified as such, but out of consideration for the king, this was only made known after his death. In the 1960s, the forgeries were destroyed by a curator of the Munich State Collection. In 1837 Rosenegger sold the entire property to the merchant Wilhelm Balde. He continued the excavations and his collection, which was free of forgeries, was bought by Vinzenz Maria Süß in 1852 for the Salzburg Museum Carolino Augusteum , where it is still located. A total of over 200 burials have been documented.

Foundation of the Gloriette lookout house (left) and the remains of the base on the Bürglstein

Today, little of the gardens on the Bürglstein have been preserved. This mountain is also more and more overgrown due to insufficient or lack of care. However, some of the former paths are still clearly recognizable, the former viewing terraces have also been preserved, although the views are partly overgrown. The foundations of the "Gloriette" lookout house have also been preserved. You can continue to climb the elongated plateau of the hill on a small path starting from Bürglsteinstrasse. Some of the surviving bases of railings from the early Wilhelminian era probably date from the time of Princess Arenberg. A path leads from the plateau into the lawn park of Arenberg Castle, which is decorated with numerous contemporary works of art.

literature

• Norbert Heger : Salzburg in Roman times. Salzburg: Salzburger Museum Carolino Augusteum (1973 annual, volume 19) 1973, pp. 94–97.
• Wilfried Schaber: Excavators and forgers on the Bürglstein. In: Eva Maria Feldinger (Ed.): Shards bring luck. Festschrift for Fritz Moosleitner on the occasion of his 70th birthday. (undated) Salzburg 2005.

Web links

Commons : Bürglstein, Salzburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ For the history of the name cf. Franz Hörburger : Salzburg Place Name Book , edited by Ingo Reiffenstein and Leopold Ziller, ed. from the Society for Salzburg Regional Studies , Salzburg 1982, pp. 23, 32 and 109.
2. ↑ Friedrich von Spaur: News about the Archbishopric of Salzburg after secularization , Verlag Niklas Ambrosi, Passau 1805, p. 34f ( Google eBook, full view )
3. ↑ Friedrich von Spaur: News about the Archbishopric of Salzburg after the secularization , Verlag Niklas Ambrosi, Passau 1805, p. 35 ( Google eBook, full view )
4. ↑ Günther E. Thüry: Iuvavum, the Roman Salzburg - the "four-mountain city" , in: Christian F. Uhlir (Ed.): Salzburger Stadtberge , edition winterwork (above) 2011, p. 112.