SALZBURG, the capital, occupies a charming situation on the Salzach, by rail 195 miles W. by S. of Vienna and 80 miles E. by S. of Munich. At this point the river passes between two extensive but isolated masses of rock (1716 and 2133 feet), one of which, the Mönchsberg (Monk's Hill), is crowned by the old citadel, dating originally from Roman times, but frequently rebuilt. These hills and those that close in the valley are picturesquely wooded. The river divides the city into two parts; on the west is the old city, with many dark, winding streets, getting access to the valley and plain on the north through a gallery (440 feet long, 39 feet high, and 23 feet wide), hewn (1767) in the solid rock of the Mönchsberg. This portion of the city contains the fine cathedral, with a white marble façade, and built (1614-34) in imitation of St Peter's at Rome; the Romanesque abbey church of St Peter (1127), in the graveyard of which are old monastic cells and a couple of chapels hewn out of the Mönchsberg, besides the chapel of St Margaret (1485); the palace of the Grand-duke of Tuscany, in the Italian style (1592-1725); and the former grand stables (now barracks) of the archbishops, partly constructed of marble (1607); the Benedictine monastery, with a valuable library of some 65,000 vols. and 900 MSS.; and the archbishop's palace. On the opposite bank—both banks are laid out as tree-shaded drives and promenades—lies the modern town, with Italian-looking, flat-roofed houses; here the most prominent buildings are Castle Mirabell (1607), the former summer-residence of the archbishops; the Capuchin monastery (1599), and St Sebastian's Church (1505-12), with the monument of Paracelsus. The city possesses also a theological faculty, all that remains of the former university (1623-1810); a public library (1617) of 82,000 vols. and 1400 MSS.; a museum of Celtic and Roman antiquities, &c.; a bronze monument (1842) to Mozart, a native of the place; a new park on the east bank; the government buildings (1588); the town-house (1407), &c. Industry is not much developed, being confined chiefly to the manufacture of musical instruments, marble ornaments, &c. Pop. (1890) 27,741. The city stands on the site of the Roman settlement Juvavum, which was ruined by the Goths and Huns. The nucleus of a new city was made by St Rupert of Worms, who established a monastery here in the 6th century. Boniface made it a bishop's seat in the 8th century, and in 798 it was elevated to an archbishopric. The archbishops had a seat and vote in the German diet, and were perpetual legates of the pope, primates of Germany, and princes of the empire. They were generally noted for their ecclesiastical severity; in 1498 the Jews were expelled from the archbishopric; in 1525 the peasantry rose in revolt; in 1732, after five years' bitter persecution (in spite of all friendly efforts on the part of the Protestant princes of Germany), 30,000 Protestants left their homes (as illustrated in Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea) and settled, on the invitation of Frederick-William I., in Prussia, mainly in Lithuanian districts that had been desolated by plague. The archbishopric was secularized in 1803, and given to the Grand-duke of Tuscany, he being made an electoral prince. The archbishopric was re-erected in 1824. Except for a short interval (1810-14), it has belonged to Austria since 1805. Since 1849 it has formed a separate crown-land of the Austrian empire.
See Zauner and Gärtner, Chronik von Salzburg (11 vols. 1797-1827), and Zillner, Geschichte der Stadt Salzburg (1885).