Up and Away to Hohensalzburg Fortress

22 May 2023 by Amby

$12

Salzburg

Austria

Hohensalzburg Fortress

Salzburg looks like a picture-book fairytale place, thanks in part to the pretty white castle overlooking the city.

Obviously we had to check it out, and we were very impressed with what we saw and learned!

The castle is at the top!

The Way Up:

There’s an easy path up to the fortress, which can be found near the funicular. It only takes about fifteen minutes to walk up and the views along the way are very nice.

Buying Tickets:

There are four different tickets that get you access to different things, we didn’t have a lot of time so we went with the “Basic Pathway Ticket” which had most of the museums and the descent on the funicular (10.40 EUR).

You can read more about the different tickets here

The Fortress:

We had to go to the Edelweiss Cooking Class at 11:30 so we arrived at the Fortress right when it opened at 8:30.

We practically had the place to ourselves for a half hour and it was really fun exploring the fortress and taking photos with no one else around.

Just me, Sev, and the Fortress.

The Panorama Tour:

The Fortress features several exhibits and museums, which open at 9am. After we walked around the castle grounds we started the Panorama Tour.

We learned about the history of Salzburg and the castle and climbed to the top of the Fortress.

Salzburg means "Salt Castle," reflecting its early origins as a salt mining region, in fact much of Salzburg’s early wealth was built on salt.

A small Hohensalzburg that looks like it's made of salt.

Hohensalzburg Fortress was built in 1077 by Archbishop Gebhard, marking the beginning of the city's fortification, and was expanded considerably over the centuries.

The best part of the Panorama Tour was a climb climb up the stairs to the top of the Fortress, with a fantastic 360 degree view of the city and surrounding countryside.

View from the top.

The Other Museums:

We were running a bit short on time but also saw the Fortress Museum, which featured castle artifacts, including from well-known individuals like the famous physician Paracelsus.

Paracelsus' pots.

The Rainer Regiment Museum was also pretty interesting, following this elite fighting force from its formation in the 1600s through World War One.

Next: the Marionette Museum! We didn’t spend a lot of time here but when we talked to the local guys at the Augustiner Bräu beer garden they highly recommended seeing a marionette show, saying it was “lovely.” Next time for sure!

There is seriously a ton of stuff to see here and we barely got through it all in the two and a half hours or so we had.