Romanesque-Gothic and beyond: Salzburg, Austria Salzburg is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg. Salzburgs Old Town (Altstadt) is internationally renowned for its baroque architecture and is one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The city has three universities and a large population of students. Tourists also frequent the city to tour the citys historic center, many palaces, and the scenic Alpine surroundings. Salzburg was the birthplace of 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the mid‑20th century, the city was the setting for parts of the musical play and film The Sound of Music. Traces of human settlements have been found in the area, dating to the Neolithic Age. The first settlements in Salzburg were apparently by the Celts around the 5th century BC. Around 15 BC the separate settlements were merged into one city by the Roman Empire. At this time, the city was called Juvavum and was awarded the status of a Roman municipium in 45 AD. Juvavum developed into an important town of the Roman province of Noricum. After the collapse of the Norican frontier, Juvavum declined so sharply that by the late 7th century it became a near ruin. The Life of Saint Rupert credits the 8th-century saint with the citys rebirth. When Theodo of Bavaria asked Rupert to become bishop c. 700, Rupert reconnoitered the river for the site of his basilica. Rupert chose Juvavum, ordained priests, and annexed the manor Piding. Rupert named the city Salzburg. The name Salzburg means Salt Castle (Latin:Salis Burgium). The name derives from the barges carrying salt on the Salzach River, which were subject to a toll in the 8th century. Religious conflict arose when in 1731, on the the 214th anniversary of Martin Luthers reformation, Archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian signed an Edict of Expulsion, the Emigrationspatent, directing all Protestant citizens to recant their non‑Catholic beliefs. There were 21,475 citizens who publicly listed themselves as Protestant and refused to recant. They were all exiled, not being able to return until 1734. The exodus began in November, and the Protestants were forced to walk through the winter, seeking refuge in Germany. A significant number died, and some children were kidnapped to be raised by Catholics. Stories of their plight spread, eventually even inspiring the German poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe to write the narrative poem Hermann and Dorothea, which, though it frames the story in terms of the French Revolution, is a commentary on the Salzburg exile. In early 1732 King Frederick William I of Prussia accepted 12,000 Salzburger Protestant emigrants, who settled in areas of East Prussia that had been devastated by the plague twenty years before Other smaller groups made their way to Debrecen and the Banat regions of the Kingdom of Hungary, to what is now Hungary and Serbia. The Kingdom of Hungary recruited Germans to repopulate areas along the Danube River decimated by the plague and the Ottoman invasion. The Salzburgers also migrated to Protestant areas near Berlin and Hanover in Germany and to the Netherlands. The Protestant German refugees went to western Europe, the United States and other western nations. Those who settled in western Germany founded a community association to preserve their historic identity as Salzburgers. The Franciscan Church (German: Franziskanerkirche) is one of the oldest churches in Salzburg, Austria. The church is located on the corner of Franziskanergasse and Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse opposite the Franciscan Friary in the Altstadt section of the city. The first church on this site was erected in the eighth century. Between 1408 and 1450, a Gothic choir replaced the Romanesque choir. A slender Gothic tower was added between 1468 and 1498. The church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and served as the parish church until 1635. It was ceded to the Franciscan Order in 1642. The church interior was redesigned in the baroque style in the eighteenth century by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. The choir contains nine chapels decorated in baroque style by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach in the eighteenth century. The chapel behind the high altar has a winged marble altar that dates from 1561. The High Altar (1709) by Fischer von Erlach is made of red marble and gold. The central Madonna statue on the winged altar dates from the Late Gothic period (1495-1498) and was sculpted by Michael Pacher of Tyrol. The staircase of the pulpit contains a marble lion from the 12th century standing over a man with a painful grimace on his face, pushing his sword into the belly of the lion. On the triumphal arch one can see some frescoes by Conrad Laib.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 01:22:11 +0000
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