Hohenwerfen Castle

There is a moment on the road south from Salzburg, about 45 minutes after leaving the city, when the valley narrows and the mountains step closer, and on a vertical rock face rising 155 metres above the Salzach River, a medieval castle appears as if growing from the stone itself. Hohenwerfen Castle has stood on this rock for nearly a thousand years. It is arguably the most dramatically positioned castle in Austria, and in the Sound of Music-saturated landscape of Salzburgerland, it is the castle that most completely delivers on the promise of the genre.

The original fortress at Hohenwerfen was built in 1077 on the orders of Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg, during the Investiture Controversy — the long conflict between the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and the papacy over the appointment of bishops. The strategic purpose was unambiguous: Hohenwerfen controlled the Salzach valley pass, one of the primary routes through the Eastern Alps connecting the German lands to the south. The castle passed through the hands of successive Archbishops of Salzburg, who used it as both a military stronghold and a refuge during periods of conflict with rival powers and rebellious nobility. The present structure is largely the work of Archbishop Matthäus Lang, who rebuilt it substantially between 1533 and 1560 in a late-Gothic and early-Renaissance style, giving the castle most of the form visible today.

The falconry school at Hohenwerfen, the Greifvogelwarte, is among the oldest in Austria and has operated continuously for decades. The daily demonstrations, held in the courtyard and in the valley meadows visible from the castle walls, feature eagles, falcons, owls and vultures flying in close, controlled passes over the audience. Falconry at Hohenwerfen is not simply a tourist spectacle staged for visiting crowds — the wider Salzburg region maintains a genuine working tradition with birds of prey, and the school runs active breeding programmes alongside its public displays. UNESCO added falconry to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2016, and Hohenwerfen is among the most visible and accessible practitioners of that tradition anywhere in the Alps.

The 1965 film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music used the Salzburg region extensively as its setting, and Hohenwerfen appears in the celebrated aerial opening sequence that introduces the von Trapp family's mountain landscape. The castle's interior was also used for several scenes. For Sound of Music fans, who still make up a significant share of Salzburg's annual visitors, Hohenwerfen is treated as an essential stop on any film-related itinerary. The views from the castle walls today, taking in the wide valley with the Tennengebirge range rising behind it, are recognisably the same views captured on film six decades ago.

The castle interior houses a museum devoted to medieval history and, inevitably for an Austrian castle of this vintage, a display of historic torture instruments — competent but not the main draw. The real highlight is the climb to the top of the keep: from there, the Salzach valley stretches north toward Salzburg and south into the deeper mountains, with the Tennengebirge massif filling the view across the valley and, on clear days, the Hochkönig peak visible in the distance. The climb is not long, but the reward at the top is unambiguous and immediate.

A cable car connects the valley car park to the castle gate, covering an ascent of roughly 100 metres and included in the standard entry ticket. Walking up from the valley floor remains possible via a moderately steep 20-minute forest path, but most visitors take the cable car, which provides its own small drama: stepping out at around 600 metres, with the castle looming immediately overhead and the valley already spreading out below.