The Untersberg is the northernmost
massif
In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...
of the
Berchtesgaden Alps, a prominent spur straddling the border between
Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps, south of Berchtesgaden; the ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
. The highest peak of the
table-top mountain is the
Berchtesgaden Hochthron at .
The landmark gained international fame as the "distinctive, lopsided peak" featured at the beginning and end of the 1965 movie ''
The Sound of Music
''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. Se ...
'',
although the filming was done on the German side, not the Austrian side. It was where
Julie Andrews
Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...
sang ''The Hills Are Alive'' at the opening scene and where the family climbed the mountain on their escape to Switzerland at the end of the film.
The mountain also lends its name to an 1829 opera, ''Der Untersberg,'' by
Johann Nepomuk von Poißl
Johann Nepomuk von Poißl (15 February 1783 17 August 1865) was a Bavarian composer and intendant.
He was born in the Haunkenzell Castle in Rattiszell, Straubing-Bogen, Bavaria. He died in Munich.
Selected works
Operas
* ''Antigonus'' ( ...
(1783–1865).
Geography
The Untersberg rises at the rim of the
Northern Limestone Alps
The Northern Limestone Alps (german: Nördliche Kalkalpen), also called the Northern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps north of the Central Eastern Alps located in Austria and the adjacent Bavarian lands of southeastern Germany. ...
, immediately at the Salzburg Basin and the broad
Salzach
The Salzach (Austrian: ˆsaltsax ) is a river in Austria and Germany. It is in length and is a right tributary of the Inn, which eventually joins the Danube. Its drainage basin of comprises large parts of the Northern Limestone and Central E ...
Valley. Neighbouring peaks are the
Hoher Göll
The Hoher Göll is a mountain in the Berchtesgaden Alps. It is the highest peak of the Göll massif, which straddles the border between the German state of Bavaria and the Austrian state of Salzburg.
Geography
On the Bavarian west side of t ...
in the southeast and Mt.
Watzmann
The Watzmann ( bar, Watzmo) is a mountain in the Berchtesgaden Alps south of the village of Berchtesgaden. It is the third highest in Germany, and the highest located entirely on German territory.
Three main peaks array on a N-S axis along a r ...
in the south, beyond the Berchtesgaden Basin. In the northwest, the
Saalach
The Saalach is a river in Austria and Germany, and a left tributary of the Salzach.
Course
The river begins, as the stream, in the Austrian state of Tyrol in the Kitzbühel Alps at the lake below the high Gamshag. From there it flows initi ...
Valley with
Bad Reichenhall
Bad Reichenhall (Central Bavarian: ''Reichahoi'') is a spa town, and administrative center of the Berchtesgadener Land district in Upper Bavaria, Germany. It is located near Salzburg in a basin encircled by the Chiemgau Alps (including Mount Staufe ...
separates it from the
Hochstaufen
The Hochstaufen is the easternmost mountain of the Chiemgau Alps, Germany. It is located in the north of Bad Reichenhall (Landkreis Berchtesgadener Land). The mountain belongs to the ''Staufen'' massif and is a popular destination for mountaineeri ...
massif of the
Chiemgau Alps
The Chiemgau Alps (german: Chiemgauer Alpen) are a mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps and therefore belong to the Eastern Alps. Their major part is situated in Bavaria, Germany and only a small section crosses the Austrian border into t ...
. About two-thirds of the area, including the Berchtesgaden Hochthron peak, is located in Germany, while the northernmost steep edge above Salzburg belongs to Austria.
The mountain is a landmark popular with tourists, due to its proximity to the City of Salzburg: less than south of the city centre and within easy reach, e.g. by bus lines running to the southern suburbs of
Grödig
Grödig is a market town of Salzburg-Umgebung District in the state of Salzburg in Austria.
Geography
Grödig is located south of the Salzburg city limits in the historic ''Flachgau'' region, near the border with Bavaria, Germany. The market to ...
and
Großgmain
Großgmain is a municipality in the district of Salzburg-Umgebung in the state of Salzburg in Austria.
Geography
Großgmain lies in the Salzburg ''Flachgau'' region in the northern foothills of the Untersberg massif, directly on the border with B ...
.
Several trails lead to the top, though most people prefer the ''Untersbergbahn''
cable car. Constructed over a period of over two years, and opening in April 1961, the eight and a half minute journey lifts passengers from the lower terminus at the village of Sankt Leonhard at over to the top station on the Geiereck spur at an altitude of , transporting them a horizontal distance of almost with a maximum height above the ground of .
The first recorded ascent was in the first half of the 12th century, by Eberwein, a member of the
Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
monastery at Berchtesgaden.
Peaks
![Blick über die Untersbergostflanke](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Blick_%C3%BCber_die_Untersbergostflanke.jpg)
* Berchtesgaden Hochthron:
* Rauheck:
* Gamsalpkopf:
* Salzburg Hochthron:
* Mitterberg:
* Geiereck:
Geology
The Untersberg massif is mainly made up of
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
. Within it, the Upper
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
Gosau Group
The Gosau Group (German: ''Gosau-Gruppe'') is a geological stratigraphic group in Austria, Germany and western Slovakia whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous to Eocene.Höfling, 1985McCann, 2008 It is exposed in numerous sporadic isolated ...
is the source of a pale cream, rose to gray yellow, massive and very dense limestone known as the ''Untersberg Marble''. This building stone is a fine to medium grained (partially
breccious)
arenite
Arenite ( Latin: ''arena'', "sand") is a sedimentary clastic rock with sand grain size between 0.0625 mm (0.00246 in) and 2 mm (0.08 in) and contain less than 15% matrix. The related adjective is ''arenaceous''. The equivalen ...
that forms the facade of notable buildings such as
Salzburg Cathedral
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, imagesize =
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, imagealt =
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, caption =
, pushpin map ...
.
[Moshammer, B., Uhlir, C., Rohatsch, A. and Unterwurzacher, M., 2015. ''Adnet ‘Marble’, Untersberg ‘Marble’and Leitha Limestone—Best Examples Expressing Austria’s Physical Cultural Heritage.'' In ''Engineering Geology for Society and Territory.'' 5,pp. 253-257). Switzerland: Springer.]
The
Karst
Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...
topography of the limestone includes numerous caves. So far, more than 400 have been explored—including the
Schellenberg ice cave
The Schellenberg Ice Cave is a cave located in the Berchtesgaden Alps in Upper Bavaria, Germany, near the Austrian border. The cave belongs to the Untersberg massif, at 1570 metres above sea level, and is the only ice cave open in Germany. It ...
at an elevation of , a
show cave since 1925, and the
Kolowrat cave with a high dome. The
Riesending cave with a depth of and a length of is the largest known in Germany. There also is a lake at depth. An expedition in August 2008 revealed that its lowest point had not yet been reached.
Legend
![Barberousse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Barberousse.Untersberg-XIXe_si%C3%A8cle-14.jpg)
First mentioned as ''Vndarnsperch'' ("
Noon
Noon (or midday) is 12 o'clock in the daytime. It is written as 12 noon, 12:00 m. (for meridiem, literally 12:00 noon), 12 p.m. (for post meridiem, literally "after noon"), 12 pm, or 12:00 (using a 24-hour clock) or 1200 ( military time).
Sola ...
Mountain") in a 1306 deed issued by the
Salzburg archbishops, the prominent spur has been the subject of numerous myths and legends. According to a popular
king asleep in mountain
The king asleep in mountain (D 1960.2 in Stith Thompson's motif index system) is a prominent folklore trope found in many folktales and legends. Thompson termed it as the Kyffhäuser type. Some other designations are: king in the mountain, king ...
legend, Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa
Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on ...
shall remain asleep inside Mt. Untersberg until his resurrection. His beard is said to be growing longer and longer around a round table and to have grown round two times. Myth says that when the beard has grown three times around the table the end of the world has come. When Frederick leaves the mountain, there will be no further
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...
and the last great battle of humankind will be fought at the pear tree on the Walserfeld, a pasture near
Wals, west of Salzburg. There is a similar legend for the
Kyffhäuser
The Kyffhäuser (,''Duden - Das Aussprachewörterbuch, 7. Auflage (German)'', Dudenverlag, sometimes also referred to as ''Kyffhäusergebirge'', is a hill range in Central Germany, shared by Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, southeast of the Harz mou ...
Mountain in
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
and
Trifels Castle
Trifels Castle (german: Reichsburg Trifels) is a reconstructed medieval castle at an elevation of near the small town of Annweiler, in the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany. It is located high above the Queich valley within the Palatin ...
.
Other legends say that it is
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
waiting inside the Untersberg,
taken care of by the ''Untersberger Mandln'', small dwarf-like creatures. Every hundred years he awakes and when he sees the ravens (actually
choughs
There are two species of passerine birds commonly called chough ( ) that constitute the genus ''Pyrrhocorax'' of the Corvidae (crow) family of birds. These are the red-billed chough (''Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax''), and the Alpine chough (or yellow- ...
) still flying around the Untersberg he sleeps for another century. Indeed, Charlemagne had held a
synod
A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...
in Salzburg in 803 AD, where he met with Bishop
Arno
The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber.
Source and route
The river originates on Monte Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a s ...
. The
Alpine tradition of the Untersberg
Wild Hunt
The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif (Motif E501 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature) that occurs in the folklore of various northern European cultures. Wild Hunts typically involve a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by ...
(''Perchten'') has recently been revived. There are also several legends about the cave system below the mountain.
Marble ball mills
![Kugelmühle Schellenberg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Kugelm%C3%BChle_Schellenberg.jpg)
The Untersberger marble ball mills are located in
Marktschellenberg
Marktschellenberg is a municipality in the district of Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe ...
in
Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps, south of Berchtesgaden; the ...
, at the opening of the Almbachklamm valley.
The ''Kugelmühlen'' (ball mills) were established in 1683. Once popular children's toys, these marbles were shipped all over the world. Through Rotterdam and London, marble shipping was directed toward the East and West Indies and exported at the rate of 60,000 to 80,000 (and sometimes as high as 100,000) pounds per year. Marbles were welcome as cargo in sailing ships, as they were suitable as ballast because of their high density. The last marbles went from Untersberg to London in 1921.
As late as the 1850s, the Almbach valley had 40 ball mills with another 90 in the surrounding region, worked mainly by poor mountain farmers. Today, a single ball mill operates primarily as a tourist attraction.
The ball mills were driven by the waters of the
Almbach river. The lower fixed grinding stones are made of hard sandstone and the upper turntables from beech wood. Grinding of the balls varies from two to eight days according to their size. After coarse grinding on the sandstone, the marble balls underwent sanding and a polish.
Gallery
Untersberg Salzburg Austria.jpg, Untersberg in April 2020
Untersberg 030704.jpg, View across the "Mittagsscharte", in the background on the left the "Salzburger Hochthron"
Untersberg Geiereck.jpg, Geiereck, a peak of the Untersberg
Salzburg (8).JPG, Untersberg cable car station
Untersberg (5).JPG, Cable car to Untersberg mountain.
Untersberg (19).JPG, View of the Salzburg basin from the Untersberg mountain top. Note Salzburg Airport on the left and Salzburg old & new towns to the right
Untersberg (24).JPG, Tourists atop the Untersberg mountain.
UntersbergView.JPG, View from Untersberg on a cloudy day.
See also
*
*
*
References
External links
Outlook from UntersbergSalzburg Tourist Officenbsp;– Salzburg city tourist board website.
{{Authority control
Mountains of Bavaria
Mountains of Salzburg (state)
Mountains of the Alps
Austria–Germany border
International mountains of Europe
Berchtesgaden Alps
Watermills in Germany
Articles containing video clips
King asleep in mountain