Habsburg

The first Archbishop of Salzburg. His elevation to metropolitan rank in 798, sponsored by Emperor Charlemagne, transformed Salzburg from a regional bishopric into the ecclesiastical capital of Central Europe.

The most powerful Archbishop of Salzburg in the medieval period. Eberhard II held the archbishopric for an extraordinary 46 years (1200-1246), the longest reign of any Salzburg archbishop, and significantly expanded Hohensalzburg Fortress.

The archbishop who commissioned the Zwerglgarten (Dwarf Garden) at Mirabell Palace, one of Salzburg's most quietly fascinating attractions. His archiepiscopate (1709-1727) represents the last golden decade of the independent Prince-Archbishopric's baroque programme.

The archbishop who founded Hohensalzburg Fortress in 1077. The reason Salzburg's most iconic landmark exists at all.

A baroque patron from the same aristocratic Thun family as the great builder Johann Ernst von Thun. Guidobald's careful stewardship (1654-1668) set the conditions for the explosive building campaign his kinsman would later unleash with Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach.

The great patron behind Salzburg's high baroque building campaign. Johann Ernst von Thun gave Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach his most important commissions, transforming Salzburg into one of the most magnificent baroque cities in the German-speaking world.

The immediate predecessor of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau. His 26-year archiepiscopate (1560-1586) provided institutional continuity during the Counter-Reformation before the explosive baroque transformation that followed his death.

The archbishop most responsible for Hohensalzburg Fortress as visitors see it today. During his reign (1495-1519), Keutschach transformed the fortress from a functional stronghold into an opulent princely residence. His personal symbol, three turnips, appears throughout the fortress carved in stone.

The archbishop behind the Protestant Expulsion of 1731-1732, one of the most dramatic episodes in Salzburg's history. Firmian ordered roughly 20,000 Protestants to convert or leave, triggering one of the most significant forced migrations of the early modern era.

Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1612 to 1619, and a cousin of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, whom he deposed with Bavarian military backing. In seven years he built Hellbrunn Palace, planted the Hellbrunner Allee, renamed Wolf Dietrich's "Altenau" to Mirabell, and laid the cornerstone of the Salzburg Cathedral. He died before completing any of them.

One of the most powerful men in the Holy Roman Empire before becoming Archbishop of Salzburg. A cardinal, imperial chancellor to Emperor Maximilian I, and the archbishop who survived a months-long siege inside Hohensalzburg Fortress during the Peasants' War of 1525.

A Counter-Reformation hardliner who in 1684 ordered the expulsion of the Protestants of the Defereggen Valley, then part of Salzburg's territory in East Tyrol. He also commissioned the Kajetanerkirche in the Altstadt.

Archbishop Paris Lodron

archbishop1586 - 1653

The "Father of the Fatherland." Paris Lodron kept Salzburg neutral and unscathed throughout the Thirty Years' War, oversaw the consecration of Salzburg Cathedral in 1628, and founded the University of Salzburg in 1622.

The most transformative Archbishop in Salzburg's history. Wolf Dietrich demolished the old Romanesque cathedral, created Mirabell Palace, rebuilt the Residenz, and began reshaping the city along Italian baroque lines. Deposed and imprisoned in Hohensalzburg Fortress until his death.

The most beloved and unconventional Habsburg of the 19th century. Archduke Johann rejected court life in Vienna, turned to the Alps with passionate intensity, and eventually married the daughter of a postmaster in Bad Aussee. The Salzkammergut and the Styrian Alps were his domain.

The only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth. His death at Mayerling in January 1889, one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Habsburg era, accelerated the end of the world his father had built.

King of the Franks and first Holy Roman Emperor. His sponsorship of Arno of Salzburg led directly to Salzburg's elevation to an archdiocese in 798, transforming the city into the ecclesiastical capital of Central Europe.

Holy Roman Emperor during whose reign Salzburg Cathedral was consecrated in 1628. Archbishop Paris Lodron's success in keeping Salzburg neutral and unscathed throughout the Thirty Years' War (Ferdinand's defining conflict) is one of the remarkable diplomatic achievements of the era.

The emperor who made Salzburg Austrian. The last Holy Roman Emperor and first Emperor of Austria. Under his reign, the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) confirmed Salzburg's permanent incorporation into the Austrian Empire in 1816, a union that has lasted to the present day.

Emperor of Austria for 68 years, the longest-reigning Habsburg. He summered at the Kaiservilla for over six decades, transforming Bad Ischl into a glittering summer capital of the Empire. He signed the declaration of war against Serbia there on 28 July 1914, triggering the First World War.

Son of Empress Maria Theresia, Enlightenment reformer, and the emperor who commissioned Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail and Le nozze di Figaro. Archbishop Colloredo was deeply aligned with his reformist ideology.

Holy Roman Emperor known as "the Last Knight." Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg served as his chief secretary and chancellor, making Salzburg's future archbishop one of the most powerful men in the Empire.

One of the most iconic figures in Austrian cultural memory. Emperor Franz Joseph I fell in love with her at Bad Ischl in August 1853 and proposed on the spot. She was assassinated in Geneva in 1898. The Sisi film trilogy with Romy Schneider cemented her global legend.

The greatest Habsburg ruler of the 18th century. In October 1762, the six-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his sister Nannerl performed for her at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, famously charming her entirely. The first royal patron of Mozart's genius.

Co-founder, with Hermann Helmer, of the firm Fellner & Helmer, which designed approximately 48 theatres across the Habsburg Empire, including the Salzburger Landestheater (1892).

The greatest operetta composer of the early 20th century. Lehar spent his summers in Bad Ischl for decades, as part of the same tradition as Emperor Franz Joseph I. His summer villa, the Leharvilla Bad Ischl, is now a museum. He died there in 1948.

"The Waltz King." Composer of The Blue Danube, the sonic symbol of Austria. Strauss spent his summers in Bad Ischl in the same imperial spa circle as Brahms, Emperor Franz Joseph I, and Empress Elisabeth.

One of the most radical leaders of the German Peasants' War (1525-1526). Gaismair led the Tyrolean and Salzburg peasant forces and besieged Hohensalzburg Fortress, where Archbishop Matthäus Lang was sheltering. The fortress held. Gaismair was assassinated in Padua in 1532, almost certainly on Habsburg orders.

The man who ended 1,200 years of the Prince-Archbishopric. Napoleon's armies occupied Salzburg in 1800 and 1809. The political consequences of the Napoleonic era erased Salzburg's status as an independent ecclesiastical state forever.

The face of Austrian imperial romanticism for global audiences. Romy Schneider rose to worldwide fame playing Empress Elisabeth in the Sissi trilogy (1955-1957). She grew up in the Berchtesgaden-Salzburg border region and attended boarding school at Goldenstein Castle near Salzburg. She later reinvented herself in France as a serious dramatic actress.

Wolf Dietrich's companion, for whom he built Altenau Palace (later renamed Mirabell) in 1606. They had 15 children together, 10 of whom survived. After Wolf Dietrich's imprisonment in 1611, Salome was exiled from Salzburg. She outlived him and died in Wels in 1633.

A pupil of Palladio hired by Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau to design a monumental cathedral on the scale of St. Peter's in Rome. The project was never realised after Wolf Dietrich's downfall, but Scamozzi's influence on Salzburg's baroque ambitions is part of the city's architectural DNA.