Salzburg

Thanks to our roadtrip to Salzburg on Saturday, I feel like I can more officially say that I've been in Austria now.

We started our day in Salzburg by taking the funicular up to Festung Hohensalzburg.  We actually saw Hohensalzburg from the distance while driving back to Augsburg from Berchtesgaden.  The fortress dates back to 1077 and is considered to be one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.

We did an audio tour of part of the castle, seeing a room that housed salt (salz = salt), the torture room (which apparently housed the implements of torture and was the access to the dungeon, but never was a place of actual torture), and got to go to the top of the castle to get a bird eye view of Salzburg.

It seems that the fortress was pretty constantly being updated and expanded.  There are various excavation points around the fortress where they have found things like the Romanesque fortress chapel seen here:

According to the accompanying signage: "The Romanesque fortress chapel was discovered by archaeologists in 1994 and is one of the oldest examples of building within the fortress.  The chapel was in the first half of the 12th century during the rule of Archbishop Konrad I of Abensburg (1106-1147) and after being redeveloped several times under Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach (1494-1519) it was destroyed.  Parts of the north wall have survived, as has the west wall with a blocked off doorway, and a bay structure with the remains of columns and supports.  In the back-filled section of the chapel there have been discoveries of furnishing and decorational elements, and fragments of stucco and fresco work."

I also like the "newly discovered Romanesque round arch arcade" pictured here:

The signage for this stated: "The hexagonal round arch arcade richly ornamented with paintings was built during the rule of Archbishop Konrad I (1106-1147) and was part of the exterior facade of that time.  A breach interrupting the row of windows dates from a later period.  The arcade was revealed during the most recent renovation in 1998.  Through the openings we can see into the former living room which is one of the oldest parts of the Mediaeval castle.  Together with the room below, it formed the high Romanesque living quarters, on which building work had begun during the reign of Archbishop Gebhard (1060-1088) and which Archbishop Konrad I finished.  There was a second window gallery on the north wall."

There was also a museum with various artifacts from the castle.  The room pictured below seems rather reminiscent of the scene from Bedknobs and Broomsticks that follows the picture:

One room of the museum was filled with various instruments of torture, such as masks of disgrace:

A chastity belt:

And this less than comfortable-looking contraption:

A few misc from around the fortress:

After lunch, we headed to back down to the main square in Salzburg.  Some pictures from there:

We then went to Salzburger Dom. 

Salzburg is famously the birthplace of Mozart, and he was baptized in the font pictured below:

Some pictures of the inside of Salzburger Dom:

It was also nice to see that Salzburger Dom's crypt has a sense of humor.  I think...

I like this shot of Salzburger Dom with Festung Hohensalzburg in the background:

S and I then went off in search of St. Peter's Abbey and Monastery, with the main sight I was interested there being the catacombs which they believe to be of early Christian origin.  The catacombs were built into the same hill that Hohensalzburg sits on.  I don't know that they were quite what I was expected, but I'm happy that I got to see them:

There were also some interesting markers in the cemetary:

Our last stop of the day was the Residenz.  A formal palace for the Prince-Archbishop, part of it is now an art museum.  I was interested because they promised Rembrandts.  It turned out to be more Rembrandt than Rembrandts, but it was a good Rembrandt and there were several other impressive paintings, so it was well worth the stop.  The rest of the palace itself can be toured, but we did not do that.

All in all a good day - and not just because the rain held off until we were almost back to the car.  :)