Archbishop
c. 748, Bavaria/Tyrol region - 24 January 821, Salzburg
The first Archbishop of Salzburg, and the man who put the city on the map of European power. In 798, Pope Leo III elevated Salzburg to an archdiocese at the direct sponsorship of Emperor Charlemagne, making Arno the head of an ecclesiastical province that stretched from Bavaria deep into Pannonia and the Balkans. Salzburg became the staging ground for the Christianisation of Central Europe.
Arno was no mere administrator. A close friend of Charlemagne and correspondent of the English scholar Alcuin of York, he turned Salzburg into a beacon of Carolingian learning and scholarship. The intellectual culture he established at Stift St. Peter and around Salzburg Cathedral laid the groundwork for centuries of religious and cultural authority.
His archbishopric is the reason Salzburg became what it became. Without the metropolitan rank Arno secured, the city might have remained a provincial bishopric instead of a European capital.
On the map
The 2 places on this page, where they actually stand.
Locations
Consecrated 1628
The first baroque cathedral built in the German-speaking world, and the dominant church at the heart of Salzburg's Altstadt. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptised here on 28 January 1756. The site has held a cathedral since 774, when Saint Virgil of Salzburg consecrated the first one.
Founded c. 696 AD
The oldest continuously existing monastery in the German-speaking world. Founded by Saint Rupert of Salzburg around 696 AD. The church interior is the work of Beda Seeauer (rococo redecoration, 1760-1782). Michael Haydn is buried in the crypt. Altomonte's altar paintings enrich the abbey church. The Stiftskeller St.
