Archbishopric of Salzburg - Geography

Geography

The bishopric's territory was roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg. It stretched along the Salzach River from the Hohe Tauern range—Mt. Großvenediger at 3,666 m (12,028 ft)—at the main chain of the Alps in the south down to the Alpine foothills in the north. Here it also comprised the Rupertiwinkel on the western shore of the Salzach, which today is part of Bavaria, Germany. The former episcopal lands are traditionally subidivided into five historic parts (Gaue): Flachgau with the Salzburg capital and Tennengau around Hallein are both located in the broad Salzach valley at the rim of the Northern Limestone Alps, the mountainous (Innergebirg) southern divisions are Pinzgau, Pongau around Bischofshofen, and southeastern Lungau beyond the Radstädter Tauern Pass.

In the north and east, the prince-bishopric bordered on the Duchy of Austria (Archduchy from 1457), nucleus of the Habsburg Monarchy. The Salzkammergut border region, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as an important salt trade region was gradually seized by the mighty House of Habsburg and incoproated into Upper Austria. In the southeast, Salzburg adjoined the Duchy of Styria, also ruled by the Habsburg (arch-)dukes in personal union since 1192. By 1335, the Austrian regents had also acquired the old Duchy of Carinthia in the south, the Styrian and Carinthian territories were incorporated into Inner Austria in 1379. The Habsburg encirclement was nearly completed, when in 1363 the archdukes also attained the County of Tyrol in the west. Only in the northwest, Salzburg bordered on the Duchy of Bavaria (raised to an Electorate in 1623), to which it formerly belonged to, and the tiny Berchtesgaden Provostry which was able to retain its independency until the Mediatisation in 1803.