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| Hohenwerfen Festung in the Mountains |
which allowed us to take in amazing views of the Austrian Alps. On our hike up to the fortress, we stopped along the river to celebrate Maxi's birthday with a surprise cake and trick candles. Happy birthday Maxi! After what seemed like a 10 mile hike straight up, we finally made it to the top of the mountain where the fortress was built. The fortress, which was built in 1077 by the Salzburg Archbishop in order to protect the city, is surrounded by snow capped mountains making the hike well worth the effort.
After catching our breath and finding some much needed water after the climb, we then took a very
informative tour of the castle. In 1525 the castle was besieged and partly destroyed by peasants during the Peasant's Wars and fortress had to surrender. The Archbishop rebuilt it and used it as a prison for Protestant peasants and then it was later used by the Austrian King as a hunting lodge. An Archduke then purchased it to be his seat of power and its function again changed during the second half of the twentieth century when it was used as a location to train rural Austrian police.
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| The Fortress inside the Outer Wall |
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| The Alps surrounding the Fortress |
In the fortress, we viewed the different sections of the castle, including a chapel, a torture chamber, a room where cannons pointed out the windows, another room where archers could place their bows to fire on attackers below them, and a clock tower that dates back to the 1500s.
The views of the countryside surrounding the fortress were simply amazing and made the excursion entirely worth the climb.
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| Valley overlooked by the Fortress |
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| WJU Students at Hohenwerfen Fortress |
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