The Salzburg Fortress (Festung Hohensalzburg), situated on the Festungsberg overlooking the city, is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. Begun in 1077 under Archbishop Gebhard von Helfenstein and abandoned as a military outpost in 1861, the castle came under siege only twice, during the German Peasants’ War of 1525, when residents of Salzburg tried unsuccessfully to oust Archbishop Matthäus Lang, and in 1800 when it was surrendered without a fight to Napoleon’s army.
The castle has been a tourist attraction at least since the late eighteenth century, and in particular its carillon, first constructed in 1502 and consisting of more than 120 pipes activated by bellows and a wind box. The Salzburg court organ maker Rochus Egedacher renovated the instrument in 1753, at which time he built a new barrel with twelve pieces, one for each month of the year; five of them were composed by the Salzburg Kapellmeister Johann Ernst Eberlin, and the rest by Leopold Mozart. The pieces were published in Augsburg in 1759 under Leopold Mozart’s name as Der Morgen und der Abend, den Inwohnern der Hochf. Residenz Stadt Salzburg melodisch und harmonisch angekündigt. In 1798, a visitor to the city wrote: ‘In the morning we woke to the most wonderful sounds, floating through the air. . . Three times the sweet melody ended, and three times it began again. It was the organ in the tower across from the Residenz, which regularly at seven and eleven in the mornings, and at six in the evening, played a well-chosen melody. We tried, as often as we could, to listen in the square.’ (Anonymous, Zeichnungen auf einer Reise von Wien über Trieste nach Venedig und von da zurück durch Tyrol und Salzburg. Im Jahre 1798 (Berlin, 1800), 335).
- Mozart Relevance
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In addition to the musical works played by the fortress carillon, published by Leopold Mozart as Der Morgen und der Abend (Augsburg, 1759), the edition includes a potted history of the fortress:
- Category/Role
- Castle
- Date 1
- 1077
- Date 2
- 1753
- Location
- Salzburg