Mountain cleaner

Mountain cleaner 1973 on Mönchsberg

The mountain cleaners are a small professional group that searches and cleans the rock faces of Salzburg's local mountains for loose rock and other dangers.

The rock fall of 1669

Commemorative plaque for the landslide of 1669 on St. Mark's Church in Salzburg

On July 16, 1669, during the worst rock fall disaster between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning, huge rock masses broke away from the Mönchsberg and destroyed the Markuskirche, the Seminarium Alumnorum , the Lieb-Frauen-Kapelle and 13 houses "in der Gstätten" ( Gstättengasse next to today's Ursuline Church ) including the city wall on top of the mountain. 230 people were killed. Many of these dead were Salzburg residents who wanted to help rescue the injured and dead, but were slain by a subsequent minor rock fall. All of the dead were buried in the now-abandoned Bürgerspitalfriedhof next to the Bürgerspitalkirche . The cause of this misfortune is the uncoordinated hollowing out of the mountain foot by a dense system of cellars and vaults carved into the mountain. Allegedly, after the landslide, the rubble mountain was so high that you could almost get up to the plateau mountain. It took the city ten years to completely remove the huge pile of rubble.

The beginnings of the mountain cleaners

Even before the year 1669 the rock was, as documents show, occasionally cleaned by mountain cleaners on behalf of the citizens. In 1574 the mountain was cleared of remaining loose rock for the first time (the first mountain cleaners mentioned in a document). After 1699, these reviews took place every several years, but sometimes more often. Since 1778, when half a village in the Lungau was buried by a devastating rock fall, men have been lowered on ropes every year (especially after the snow has melted ) in order to systematically check the rocks of the Mönchs , Kapuziner and fortress mountains for loose rock. In 1779, a stone weighing 200 quintals was safely brought down over Linzergasse. The effort involved in the work was very different in each case. Particularly extensive rock cleaning work in the Gstätten is known from around 1886, which at that time cost 1569 guilders . In history, mountain cleaners often used the Hallein miners who were known to be very knowledgeable .

The rock cleaning work has been carried out on behalf of the "High Salzburg Landscape" since 1778. After the secularization of the archbishopric in 1816, they were then taken over by the kk "Kameral-Ärar", with a third of the costs being paid by the municipality. Since 1919, the Salzburg magistrate has been solely responsible for cleaning rocks.

The mountain cleaners today

Mönchsberg rock face, immediately adjacent to a row of houses

Every year the mountain cleaners have to check around 300,000 m² of rock. Eliminating the roots of young trees or the regular radical pruning of the bushes and trees in the rock walls is also an elaborate job, so that the pressure from the roots of the plants does not lead to the enlargement of crevices and crevices. In addition, the unique cityscape is preserved.

In addition to the work of rock cleaning, the municipality of Salzburg has the task of maintaining all stone trapping facilities to secure the settlement area below the city mountains and to carry out all geotechnically necessary measurements on Mönchsberg, Rainberg, Kapuzinerberg, Festungsberg and Hellbrunner Berg (especially in the area of ​​the stone theater) . The mountain cleaners are also partly involved in this work. In rare cases, rock anchors must also be attached to secure the rock fragments.

In 2018, the city ​​wall on Mönchsberg was renovated by mountain cleaners and employees of a specialist company. In the television film Die Toten von Salzburg - Zeugenmord (2018), mountain cleaners were involved as extras as well as in the preparations for shooting the cameras and in the security work on the original locations below the fortress.

literature

• Ludwig Pezolt: About mountain accidents, mountain carving and the "mountain cleaners" in the city of Salzburg . In: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde 34, 1894, ISSN  0435-8279 , pp. 21–30.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rock protection - portal of the city of Salzburg
2. ↑ orf.at: Salzburg city wall is being extensively renovated . Article dated August 10, 2018, accessed August 10, 2018.
3. ↑ Mountain cleaner with an appearance in “Die Toten von Salzburg” . Article dated February 21, 2018, accessed August 10, 2018.

Web links

Wiktionary: Bergputzer  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Photos of mountain cleaners at work