Submit a photo
Submit a photo
Ninety seconds on Festung Hohensalzburg
Come for the Princes' Rooms, which still hold their original furnishings after five centuries, and for the 360-degree view of Salzburg from the platform on the keep.
The Princes' Rooms take up the third floor of the Hoher Stock: the Golden Hall, the Golden Parlour and the Bedchamber. One visitor describes the Golden Hall's ceiling as painted blue and studded with gilded balls for the sky and stars.
Building on the hill began in 1077, and the fortress took the shape you see around 1500 under Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach, who had these rooms built in the first years of the 1500s. In all its centuries the fortress was never taken by foreign troops.
The panorama tour leads from the salt magazine through the dungeon to the observation platform on the keep. It then continues through the battlements to the Salzburg Bull.
The Bull is an organ named for its sound. Travellers' accounts describe more than a hundred pipes that roar like a bull, and one calls it the last Gothic organ of its kind to survive.
Your choice of ticket sets what you see, so make it before you go up. Tickets bought for the funicular include the ride up and down. Footpath tickets are sold online or at the counter in the second barrier arch, the entrance to the grounds, and include only the ride down.
The Panorama ticket covers the grounds and the panorama tour. It is sold only at set times: from May to September between 8.30 and 10am and from 6pm, and from October to April in the late afternoon.
Every ticket includes the panorama tour. The Basic and All-inclusive tickets, by funicular or on foot, add the Rainer Regiment Museum, the Fortress Museum, which shows the court life of the prince-archbishops, and the armory, an interactive exhibition of armour and weapons. The Marionette Museum is two small rooms, by one account, with a wall of puppets and dioramas.
The All-inclusive ticket also includes the Princes' Rooms and the Magic Theatre, a multimedia show set in the rooms. Ride back down from the mountain station on the FestungsBahn.
From May to September a free quick tour of the courtyards and bastions starts at the Info Point daily at 9.30am and 7pm. It runs for 30 minutes in German and English and stays outdoors. Join it if you want the layout explained before you go inside on your own.
A recent visitor reports exhibits signed in English, and multilingual audio guides are offered. Groups of ten or more register two to three weeks ahead. The fortress website also lists an English-language Christmas tour.
A Salzburg Card covers one admission and one ride each way, once, so plan a single visit around it.
On a Sunday, plan to be at the fortress between 11.45 and noon, when the tower trumpeters play from the Trompeterturm.
At the Fortress Games you hunt for the Golden Turnip, and you can test your strength by pulling the rope at the Salzburg Bull.
Explore the rest of Salzburg
The old town sits on the left bank of the Salzach, below the Festung Hohensalzburg and along the wooded Mönchsberg, and crossing it on foot…
The wooded hill above the old town is reached in half a minute by the MönchsbergAufzug, or on foot by a free path. The lift runs until nine…
Getreidegasse is the old town's main pedestrian shopping street, on the left bank of the Salzach, with Mozart's Birthplace at number 9…
The official pages this guide was checked against.
Last updated