Fortress mountain

Fortress mountain
The fortress mountain in summer 2008
height	542  m above sea level A.
location	Salzburg , Austria
Dominance	0.95 km →  Kapuzinerberg
Notch height	110 m ↓  Sinnhubstraße
Coordinates	47 ° 47 '43 "  N , 13 ° 2' 54"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 47 '43 "  N , 13 ° 2' 54"  E
rock	Main dolomite , Dachstein limestone
Age of the rock	law
particularities	Hohensalzburg Fortress

The fortress mountain is located in the south of the old town of Salzburg and is 542 m (E and W threshold to the Hohen Stock) or 540 m (door sill Georgskirche) high. Inside the high floor, the rock reaches up to a height of about 548 m. The town's landmark, the Hohensalzburg Fortress, is located on the mountain . Together with the neighboring Mönchsberg and Rainberg as well as the Kapuzinerberg and the small Bürglstein on the right bank of the Salzach, it belongs to the inner city mountains of this city. Together with its eastern branch, the Nonnberg , it consists of main dolomite stone at its base and Dachstein limestone on top . Today, apart from the rocks and the settlement area at the foot of the mountain, the mountain is essentially characterized by forest, which largely belongs to the forest community of the maple-ash ravine forest in the north and a deciduous forest rich in precious wood in the south.

For the history of defense see also the article Fortifications of the City of Salzburg

geography

The Festungsberg is located in the historical center of the city of Salzburg and borders the left old town in the south. Its base is around 0.13 km², its greatest extent in west-east direction about 700 m, in north-south direction about 275 m. In the west, the fortress mountain goes over into the Mönchsberg after a depression (the so-called “notch”). In the north and south it drops steeply in parts, in the east the Nonnberg continues as a small foothill towards the Salzach . Its height is 542  m above sea level. A. , the height in relation to its surroundings (local point Salzburg 424 m) is a maximum of almost 120 meters.

As part of the historic center of the city, the fortress mountain has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.

geology

The history of the mountain begins about 200 million years ago. At that time, the rocks mentioned were deposited as shallow water sediments together with the associated coral reefs, which 100 million years ago were increasingly folded and pushed northwards. Together with the Kapuzinerberg, the Kühberg and the Nockstein , the Festungsberg now forms the northern edge of the Limestone Alps, and geologically speaking, the Alps therefore almost extend into the old town of Salzburg. The outermost south-east flank of the mountain along Brunnhausgasse consists of marl , a clayey-calcareous, fine-grained, soft deposit, as well as old conglomerate , which was created here by cementing river gravel from the Cretaceous period .

history

Early history and antiquity

Various pre-Roman finds are known of the fortress mountain, which date back to the Stone Age. The center of settlement at that time was the Rainberg, but there were also remarkable finds here. A Celtic head sculpture from the La Tène period found here a long time ago was walled in over the rose gate of the fortress for a long time.

The fortress mountain was fortified as early as Roman times (see Iuvavum ). Towards its end there was probably a first small church on the Nonnberg. The Ostrogoth Odoacer , who deposed the last Western Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476 , ordered the withdrawal of most of the Romanesque population in 488. A remaining population (maybe on the Nonnberg?) Survived until the time of St. Rupert and thus carried on the early Christian legacy. This is proven by grave finds in the area of ​​the former cathedral garages at the foot of the mountain.

middle Ages

From around 700 on there was already a small castle on the Nonnberg, called castrum superior or castrum juvaviense , whose fortifications included the Nonnbergfuß and the fortress mountain. Around 715, St. Rupert on the Nonnberg founded the Benedictine women's monastery in Nonnberg . A little later, during the investiture dispute in 1077, the first fortress was built on the top of the mountain.

From Rainberg to Nonnberg Monastery, vineyards belonging to the Cathedral Monastery and St. Peter Monastery , which were first mentioned in 1139 , once lay along the southern slope of the fortress mountain . In the Middle Ages, the vineyard house, which was later fortified, stood at the foot of the mountain. Even today, in many places in the forest south of the fortress, old ruined stone terraces of the vineyards of that time are visible. A nature guide for Salzburg in 1925 (Hoffer and Lämmermayer) reports that in 1925 the vines were "still sporadically found on the southern side of the fortress mountain".

Flora and fauna

The fortress mountain from the south

Jackdaws often frolic around the fortress . The flying birds, which live in monogamous lifelong marriages, build their nests in the old fortress walls with their ventilation slots. These exposed outer walls are hardly disturbed by humans and are therefore an ideal breeding ground with a lot of foresight.

Two winter guests of the high Alps are much less common than the jackdaws: the alpine brownelle and the alpine wallcreeper , who both live above 1800 m above sea level in summer. As a winter guest, the alpine wall runner regularly visits the fortress mountain to climb the walls and rocks for something to eat.

The most common plants on the rocks and walls of the fortress mountain are the wall fern and the black-stalked striped fern, which have their roots in tiny, barely recognizable cracks. Besides thrives here as a small hanging pillows with violet flowers, the Cymbalaria . The mother plant places the seeds on long stalks in cracks and crevices, where young plants are most likely to take root.

The glass herb, a warmth-loving medicinal herb from the Mediterranean area, is said to have become naturalized from the Roman castles in warm places in Central Europe. It is unclear whether the glass herb stock at Nonnberg Monastery came to Salzburg in Roman antiquity or only with the medieval nuns.

traffic

The tearing train from Nonnberg to the fortress

The mountain is now accessible for passenger transport by the fortress railway , and since the Middle Ages by a material cable car, the tearing train . On a steep road, visitors come from the Nonntal district or from the Kaiviertel through the Nonnbergtor to the monastery district of the Benedictine women's monastery in Nonnberg . From there the Hohe Weg continues upwards to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Other paths lead from Kapitelplatz either via Festungsgasse or Michael-Haydn-Stiege up the mountain, or from the southwest via Hans-Sedlmayr-Weg or from the festival district via Clemens-Holzmeister-Stiege (in Toscaninihof) and Dr .-Herbert-Klein-Weg.

Famous residents

The Austrian writer Gerhard Amanshauser was born in 1928 in a house on the Festungsberg (access via Brunnhausgasse). In 2006 he died in the same house. The Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz also lives on the slope of the mountain in Brunnhausgasse.

literature

• Reinhard Medicus: Schlossberg (today Festungsberg) and Nonnberg in cultural and natural history . In: Bastei. Journal for the preservation and care of buildings, culture and society , 54th year, 3rd episode.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Measurements on the Geographical Information System of the State of Salzburg ( SAGIS ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).