SALZBURG. – Archdiocesan see, capital of the eponymous confederate country of Austria.
I. ORIGINS
The Salzburg territory of the ecclesiastical principality extended over a large part of the Bavarian plain and the narrow valleys of the Salzach and Saalach rivers, including the smaller high-mountain valleys; the principal riches of this region were in mineral salts (Dürnberg above Hallein, Reichenhall), copper and other precious minerals (Kitzbühel, various valleys of the Tauern), gold in the valleys of Rauris and Gastein, and the marble of Adnet, exploited since prehistoric times.Meanwhile, from the Celtic era onwards, the important inhabited nucleus of Petena, later Iuvavum, existed on the site of Salzburg; the river was called Igonta, then Ivarus. Under Roman rule (from 15 BC) the territory was largely included in the province of Noricum; Iuvavum, a municipium under Claudius, became an administrative seat, without military importance. In the life of St Severinus (d. 482) it appears under the form of Iuvao and outside the city there was a monastic church and basilica (chaps. 13 and 14) or cell with some spiritual monks; there were also faithful in nearby Cucullis (today Kuchl) (chap. 11); the ancient church of the castrum Cucullis seems to survive in the present church on the Georgenberg (St George). Instead, the identification of the priest Maximianus (chap. 24) with «Ioviaco», as a martyr Maximus, whose cell is shown in Salzburg’s so-called catacombs, does not seem justified because that locality was on the Danube, with a fleet station. After the death of St Severinus, ancient Iuvavum was largely destroyed by the Heruli (488). Around 500 the region was occupied by the Bavarians, and in that century a castellum superius is recorded as situated on the present Nonnberg. The region, like all Bavaria, was slowly Christianised by Frankish missionaries.
Around 690-95, St Rupert (q.v.), missionary bishop, appeared in the land; he established various ‘cells’, i.e. centres of monastic and missionary life; from Duke Theodo of Bavaria he received ancient Iuvavum with its castle as a gift, and there he established his residence, founding a male monastery under the title of St Peter and a female one on the site of the castle, both still extant (Sankt Peter and Nonnberg [q.v.]). Theodo also obtained from Gregory II (716) the establishment of a permanent ecclesiastical organisation in Bavaria, with Salzburg as its centre; but it was only St Boniface, in 739, who regulated ecclesiastical relations by establishing four stable sees: Salzburg, Regensburg, Passau (which had already had bishops, at least in transit) and Freising. The first bishop of Salzburg was John (739-45), abbot of St Peter. His successor, St Virgil (q.v.), was the true organiser of the diocese (745-84): he built the first cathedral, distinct from the abbatial church of St Peter, and transferred there the body of St Rupert (774), thenceforth venerated as a saint and patron of the diocese and the region. Learned and very active, he directed the diocese’s greatest energies towards the largely untouched regions of Carinthia, Styria and Pannonia. In 755 the current name ‘Salzburg’ (burg of salt) appears for the first time, and the dukes and German kings donated to the bishopric the nearby saltworks.
II. ARCHDIOCESE
1. Missionary centre (c. 898-950). – From 758 to 821 Arn (q.v.) governed the diocese, which on 20 April 798 saw its see raised to a metropolitan status by Leo III, with the suffragan sees of Sabiona, later Brixen (q.v.), and the Bavarian ones existing since 739: Freising, Passau and Regensburg, as well as Neuburg, soon united to Augsburg which was under Mainz. The school of St Peter flourished: the famous code of traditions (register of the Church of Salzburg’s landed properties) was composed and a vast impulse was given to missions towards the east, especially after the Avar wars. Charlemagne assigned to Salzburg all the immense Avar territories as mission lands, and the archdiocese extended as far as the Tisza, while from 811 the Drava formed the border with Aquileia; shortly afterwards those with Passau were regulated (q.V. Austria, II. History of Christianity). Since the extent was immense, a co-episcopate was established in Carinthia, with seat at Maria Saal. Under Liutpram (836-859) a missionary centre was established beyond the Danube for the Slovaks, at Nitra, the beginning of a political-religious dispute.
During the investiture controversy the archbishops of Salzburg were ordinarily allied with the popes, and suffered greatly because of it; but they emerged more powerful and respected. Eberhard II (1200-46), a partisan of Emperor Frederick II, obtained confirmation of the full political independence of his ecclesiastical principality (20 April 1220) and, following Gebhard’s ideas, established three other ‘suffragan’ sees: Chiemsee in Bavaria (1217-18), Seckau in Styria (1218) and, in eastern Carinthia, Lavant with residence at St Andrä (1228). Indeed, the bishop of Chiemsee took up residence in the city of Salzburg itself (Chiemseehof) from 1300 onwards. Thus, in addition to the common suffragans of Brixen, Freising, Passau and Regensburg, Salzburg had four of its own suffragans, with full rights of election, investiture, etc. This ‘unicum’ remained in force for Chiemsee until its suppression in 1307, and for the others largely until the Austrian Concordat of 1933-34.
From 1366 the archbishops of Salzburg also had the right to mint gold coins. But due to the political movements of the time, there were increasingly frequent intrusive archbishops, who not infrequently caused violent conflicts, even armed ones, and were a cause of decline and significant internal tensions.
3. Apogee of power and art (c. 1450-1750). – Emperor Frederick III was able to establish bishoprics of his own at Vienna and Wiener Neustadt, something that Salzburg and Passau had hitherto managed to prevent. The same emperor then granted the city of Salzburg imperial free city rights in 1481, in order to weaken the power of the prince-archbishop. But he did not succeed, because Archbishop Leonhard of Keutschach (1495-1519) intervened against these aspirations to independence: famous is the midwinter transport of the most prominent citizens to Radstadt, accompanied by the executioner, and the construction of the great organ on the city’s fortress (‘Stier’) which was to sound at 4 a.m. and 9 p.m. to regulate city life: an instrument that still works excellently, though it now plays choral melodies, different each month. He then strengthened the fortress and made it also a princely residence with the church of St George, where he had his effigy carved in red marble, blessing the city and the land from on high. He was succeeded by the celebrated Cardinal Matthäus Lang of Wellenburg (1519-40), who brought his state to new splendour and in 1529 received the title of ‘Primas Germaniae’, retained by the see to this day. After the Council of Trent, reforming synods were not lacking (1569-1576) and religious life remained flourishing despite Protestant infiltrations.
The new Renaissance spirit brought about a rapid and extensive renewal of the city and the principality, thanks to the work of three famous prince-archbishops. The first and most controversial was Wolf Dietrich of Raitenau (1587–1612), a student of the German College in Rome, who became prince-archbishop at the age of 28. He brought profound impressions of Italian life and art. He demolished the grand medieval cathedral down to its foundations (1600) and in 1610 laid the first stone of the new one. He began the construction in the centre of Salzburg of an entire ecclesiastical quarter (residence, offices, Chapter House, etc.), opened a new cemetery, and promoted every kind of art, employing Italian artists. To counter Protestant expansion, he invited the Capuchins and built them several convents. In promoting trade, he came into armed conflict (“Salzkrieg”) with Maximilian of Bavaria. He was defeated, imprisoned, and denounced in Rome (1612). His zeal for building made him enemies, especially in the Chapter, but it was above all his relationship with Salome Alt (whom the Emperor ennobled as Altenau) that harmed him; she bore him ten children, and for her he built Altenau Castle, now Mirabell. A papal commissioner, while freeing him from Bavarian imprisonment in Hohensalzburg, declared him a prisoner of the Holy See, under the surveillance of the new archbishop. Wolf Dietrich lived another five years (d. 1617), in strict confinement but in sincere penitence.
He was succeeded (1612–19) by Marcus Sitticus of Hohenems, who continued his predecessor’s building projects with greater success. In 1614 he began the new cathedral on a different plan and, with the gymnasium (1617), prepared the future university.
But the greatest prince of that period was Paris of Lodron (1619–53), who succeeded in maintaining full peace in his states throughout the Thirty Years’ War and even brought them to true material and spiritual prosperity. In 1628 he was able to complete the external construction of the cathedral and many other buildings in the city, giving it in part the appearance of a Baroque city. He built new fortifications for greater security, maintaining a modest but well-equipped army. But his greatest glory is the foundation of the Benedictine University of Salzburg (1632) and the establishment of the Benedictine Congregation of Salzburg, which included many Bavarian and nearby abbeys (1641–1808).
Attempts at missions among the Protestants, who remained tenacious in their Alpine valleys, proved vain. Leopold of Firmian (1727–44), to rid himself of them, on 31 October 1731 exiled them from the state, an act that then alarmed all Europe; more than 25,000 people left the country, most of them settling in Prussia and Hesse.
4. Decline (1750–1816)
Salzburg did not escape the Enlightenment and the caesaropapism of Joseph II, and Hieronymus Colloredo (1772–1803), who was deeply imbued with it, introduced many reforms, abolishing processions, limiting external piety, suppressing confraternities and pious works, and even forbidding nativity scenes, to the great regret of the people.With the advent of Napoleon, Colloredo fled (1800) before the French and never returned. He died in 1812 in Vienna. But as early as 1786 he had been obliged to conclude a Convention with Joseph II (19 April), by which the jurisdiction of Salzburg over Austrian territories ceased, and the Emperor (with Rome’s consent) reduced the suffragan dioceses of Gurk, Seckau, Lavant, and the new diocese of Leoben to suffragans of Salzburg in the common sense of the term. Salzburg, however, retained the right of nominating the bishops of these sees.
In 1803, with the great German secularization, the age-old ecclesiastical principality of Salzburg also came to an end. In the Peace of Lunéville its territory was assigned to the Archduke of Tuscany with the title of Electorate (Kurfürstentum). In 1805 it passed to Austria, which lost it in 1809. Meanwhile, the cathedral chapter had been suppressed (1807). The Bishop of Chiemsee administered the spiritual affairs of the archdiocese. From 1809 to 1810 Salzburg was under the French, then passed to Bavaria (1810–16), which abolished the minting right and the university.
III. THE MODERN ARCHDIOCESE (SINCE 1825)
With the Congress of Vienna (1816), the territory of the principality of Salzburg passed definitively to Austria, though some important parts such as Reichenhall, Berchtesgaden, and the Flachgau (the plain beyond the Salzach) remained with Bavaria. Since 1918 it has been one of the federal states of the Austrian Republic. A reorganization of ecclesiastical relations was also necessary.
With the bulls Ex imposito (2 May 1818) and Ubi primum (7 March 1825), the archdiocese of Salzburg was re-erected, delimited, and endowed. A new metropolitan chapter was instituted (1825), and the first archbishop was appointed in the person of Augustin Gruber, a noted catechist (1823–35), who was succeeded by Frederick Prince of Schwarzenberg (1836–1850). The dioceses of Trent (a suffragan of Salzburg since 1825) and Brixen (a suffragan since 1798) were placed directly under the Holy See in 1920 and 1924 respectively, as was Lavant in 1924, which had passed to Yugoslavia in 1918. Under the Austrian Concordat of 1933, the two suffragan dioceses of Gurk and Seckau are now nominated directly by the Holy See according to common law, and the Salzburg chapter retains only the right to elect, from a papal ternary proposal, the new archbishop, to be confirmed by the Pope.
The incorporation of Austria into Germany (1938–45) brought to the archdiocese of Salzburg all the difficulties created by the Nazi regime; and the bombs did the rest: the dome of the cathedral and other churches were destroyed, religious works were suppressed. Worth noting as signs of religious recovery are the Austrian Borromaeuswerk (1946) for Catholic publishing, the Permanent Commission of the Austrian episcopate for liturgy, with headquarters in the Liturgical Institute at St. Peter’s Abbey (1947), the Austrian Institute for Caritas Science for the training of lay people in social work, and the revival of the Catholic University.
The present archdiocese covers 9,715 sq. km., with 456,000 inhabitants, of whom 380,000 are Catholic (the city of Salzburg alone now has more than 100,000 inhabitants). It is divided into 19 deaneries with 200 parishes. It has well-organized major and minor seminaries. There is also a Faculty of Theology. Salzburg is also known as the birthplace of the Society of St. Peter Claver for African missions.
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BIBL.:
V. SALISBURGO (città).
IV. UNIVERSITIES, CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS
Sankt Peter (v.) sacred and profane studies have always flourished; thus it exerted a most notable influence on the spiritual life of the city and the ancient principality. The same holds true, in relation to the abbey of Nonnberg, for the female sex. In the Middle Ages there was also the cathedral school. But the glory of Salzburg in the scholarly field is its Benedictine university, which, after many difficulties, arose with the definitive assistance of Prince Archbishop Paris of Lodron and the passionate collaboration of the Benedictines of Salzburg and Bavaria. In 1617 a gymnasium was first established; on 9 March 1620 the imperial diploma was granted; on 17 December 1625 the papal confirmation of Urban VIII was received; and in 1623 the university was opened. Around 1700, alongside the university, the famous *Kollegienkirche* arose, a first-rate Baroque creation. Notable is the fact that the University of Salzburg was the only Catholic university in which history also had a practical and universal instruction. Bavaria suppressed it immediately (24 December 1810); however, in its place a kind of lyceum continued until 1850, when the theological faculty was reestablished.
Since 1884 the *Kath. Universitätsverein* has existed for the foundation and endowment of a complete Catholic university. After a halt during and following the First World War, the Nazi period destroyed the work nearing completion. Now everything has been resumed; the philosophical faculty and various higher institutes have been added. Since 1931 the *Salzburger Hochschulwochen*, highly renowned international summer university courses, have been held in Salzburg. Salzburg also has the *Studienbibliothek*, with more than 1,200 manuscripts, more than 4,600 incunabula, and more than 100,000 volumes. Since 1880, the renowned international institute *Mozarteum* for music has also been located there. Indeed, the great musician W. A. Mozart (b. 1756) was born in Salzburg, and he began his career with the support of the prince archbishop. The *Salzburger Festspiele* have enjoyed world fame since 1917, resumed in 1925 during the summer season with grand performances, especially dramatic ones, on the cathedral square.
V. ART
Today Salzburg presents itself at first glance as a Baroque city: it is also called the German Rome because of its many domes, dominated by that of the cathedral. This is the principal sacred monument of the city. It is dedicated to Sts. Rupert and Virgil. After the destruction of the primitive structure begun by St. Virgil (774), a reconstruction in grand Romanesque forms, influenced by Saxony, took place during the 12th century, with a great transept between two square towers, three internal naves with a transept and two other rounded towers, an octagonal dome, and two small towers with staircases in the presbytery. Gothic renovations and internal embellishments followed: grand altars, sculptures, and works of art of every kind, so much so that the cathedral of Salzburg was among the largest in Germany. Severely damaged by fire in 1598, it was rebuilt from 1600 onward. Wolf Dietrich of Raitenau, Prince Archbishop, summoned Vincenzo Scamozzi, who developed a first grand project inspired by St. Peter’s in Rome and the Gesù (1606–10), but in 1610, when Wolf Dietrich laid the first stone, the project had already been simplified. His successor, Marcus Sitticus, had Santino Solari draw up a third project, executed from 1614 to 1628. The two bell towers were completed in 1655. The façade is of white marble, while the rest of the exterior is in gray stone (length 100 m., width 70 m., dome 72 m.). The exterior is pure Renaissance, the interior early Baroque, with rich furnishings by various artists. In the presbytery are ten archiepiscopal tombs from 1619 to 1771 and a grand 18th-century organ. From the old cathedral comes the 12th-century baptismal font; the Treasury houses relics from every age.
The cathedral square, with the arcades of G. A. Dario (1606), forms a grand quadriportico, with in its midst the monument to the Immaculate Conception (1771), by Hagenauer. Beside it stands the sumptuous residence (now seat of the government) of the prince archbishops, built on the site of the ancient one from 1120 B.C. and renovated in the 16th century (from 1595 to 1619, with additions in 1788–92), which as a whole attests to the power of the ancient principality. In front of the square stands the Residence Fountain (1631–61), by Tommaso di Garona, the most beautiful Renaissance fountain beyond the Alps.
Another residence was the fortress of Hohensalzburg, begun as a castle in 1077, largely rebuilt by Leonard of Keutschach, with a palace, church, and all accessories. The princely chambers (*Fürstenzimmer*, especially the *goldene Stube*) reveal great taste and refinement; unique is the maiolica stove from 1501, of which each individual panel has its own sculpture. The fortress, expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries, dominates the city with its vast bulk. The residence of the suffragan bishop of Chiemsee was the Chiemseehof, a vast medieval and Baroque building, much transformed, now another seat of the government. Notable is the *Hofapotheke*, the official pharmacy, with interior and furnishings from 1500 to 1700. The entire city is filled with other secular monuments of the princes, such as fountains, riding schools, horse baths, palaces, bourgeois houses, and merchant houses with arcaded courtyards, etc.
Among the many churches, that of the Franciscans must be especially remembered; until 1583 it was the parish church of the city: built in the 8th century, rebuilt in the 13th in heavy Romanesque forms, dedicated in 1221. The Romanesque choir was replaced around 1408–32 by the master Hans Stethaimer with a luminous Gothic choir in the form of a *Hallenkirche*, with very tall pillars in the shape of palm trees and a grand ambulatory. The bell tower dates to 1486–98. For the high altar the greatest artist of the time, Michael Pacher, was summoned, but of his work (1486–98) only the statue of the Madonna remains; the rest was replaced by the Baroque altar of J. B. Fischer von Erlach (1709–11). Noteworthy is the cemetery, near the church of St. Sebastian, by A. Bertoleto (1595–1600), with arcades around it and many monuments; in its midst is the domed mausoleum of Wolf Dietrich.
Salzburg’s Baroque appearance comes from the many domed churches in this style. At first Gasparo Zugalli built much, with the help of other Italian artists; especially characteristic are his churches of St. Erhard (1685–89) and St. Cajetan (1685–1700), in Italian Baroque forms. This is followed by the period of J. B. Fischer von Erlach, imperial architect of Vienna. His works in Salzburg include the church of the Holy Trinity (1694–1702), with the two wings of the Page School and the Seminary; his major work in Salzburg is the *Kollegienkirche*, i.e., the university church (1694–1707), dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. Less grand are the churches of St. John, of the hospital (1699–1714), and of the Ursulines (1699–1705). All these churches are decorated by various local and foreign artists with great taste.
Among the various castles, Mirabell must be remembered, built in 1606 by Wolf Dietrich of Raitenau, rebuilt by J. L. von Hildebrandt in 1721–27, with a grand park; after the fire of 1818 it was remodeled by P. Nobile. The internal staircase has been preserved, with the famous lead putti of R. Donner (1726). Hellbrunn Castle (1613–15), built by the cathedral architect S. Solari, is famous especially for its various water games (1615–19); the open-air theater for Italian comedies; and the *Nonnenschloss*, built in a single month. Of the already
Born J. B. Fischer von Erlach is also the castle of Klessheim, of very sober, almost classical forms, while the castle of Leopoldskron (1736) is simpler and more intimate. In the city there should also be mentioned the Town Hall of 1407, remodelled in 1616, and the tunnel under the Mönchsberg, the “Neutor” (123 m.) dating from the early 18th century.
Outside the city of Salzburg one must not fail to mention some of the most renowned works of art. Mattsee, founded in 777, with Romanesque decoration transformed in the Baroque style; Tamsweg, in the Lungau, with a church dedicated to St Leonard, rich in works of art (medieval stained glass, frescoes from the 14th and 15th centuries, and those of the Ledrewasch family of painters, which includes at least 18 masters over two centuries). Nearby is Mariapfarr with other famous frescoes in the parish church. Among the Marian shrines the most frequented is that of Maria Plain, near Salzburg, a church by A. Dario (1671–74); for the coronation of the statue W. A. Mozart composed the well-known “Coronation Mass.” *Vedi* tav. CV.
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