Werfen () is a market town in the district of

St. Johann im Pongau St. Johann im Pongau (''Saiga Håns'' or ''Sainig Håns'' in the local Pongau dialect, abbreviated St.Johann/Pg.) is a small city in the state of Salzburg in Austria. It is the administrative centre of the St. Johann im Pongau District. Geograp ...

, in the Austrian state of Salzburg. It is mainly known for medieval

Hohenwerfen Castle Hohenwerfen Castle (german: Festung Hohenwerfen, lit=Hohenwerfen Fortress) is a medieval rock castle, situated on a precipice overlooking the Austrian market town of Werfen in the Salzach valley, approximately south of Salzburg. The fortress is s ...

and the

Eisriesenwelt The Eisriesenwelt (German for "World of the Ice Giants") is a natural limestone and ice cave located in Werfen, Austria, about 40 km south of Salzburg. The cave is inside the Hochkogel mountain in the Tennengebirge section of the Alps. It ...

ice cave, the largest in the world.

Geography

Werfen is located in the northwest of the historic Pongau region, about south of the city of Salzburg. The settlement is situated in the Salzach valley south of the

Lueg Pass Lueg Pass is a mountain pass or defile above the Salzachöfen Gorge in Salzburg State, Austria. The pass is at the western edge of the Tennen Mountains and is approximately above the Salzach river where Salzachöfen is at its narrowest. The te ...

, between the

Berchtesgaden Alps The Berchtesgaden Alps (german: Berchtesgadener Alpen) are a mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps, named after the market town of Berchtesgaden located in the centre. The central part belongs to the Berchtesgadener Land district of southe ...

(

Hagen Mountains The Hagen Mountains (german: Hagengebirge) are a subrange of the Berchtesgaden Alps. They lie mainly in the Austrian state of Salzburg, the western quarter is in the Bavarian county of Berchtesgadener Land. The steep western flanks of the Hagen ...

and the

Hochkönig The Hochkönig is a mountain group containing the highest mountain (Mount Hochkönig) in the Berchtesgaden Alps, Salzburgerland, Austria. The Berchtesgaden Alps form part of the Northern Limestone Alps. Location It lies to the west of the town o ...

massif) in the west and the

Tennen Mountains The Tennen Mountains (german: Tennengebirge) is a small, but rugged, mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps, which lies in front of the Eastern Alps for its entire length. It is a very heavily karstified high plateau, about 60 km² in ...

in the east. The Salzburg-Tyrol Railway line (''Giselabahn'') and the

Tauern Autobahn The Tauern Autobahn (A 10) is an Autobahns of Austria, autobahn (motorway) in Austria. It starts at the Salzburg junction with the West Autobahn (A1), runs southwards, crosses the Hohe Tauern, Tauern mountain range on the main chain of the Alps an ...

run parallel to the river. The region is known as the type locality of the geologic

Werfen Formation The Werfen Formation is a geologic formation in the Southern Limestone Alps and Dinaric Alps of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy. It preserves fossils dating back to the Triassic period.Triassic stone layer of the

Limestone Alps The Limestone Alps (german: Kalkalpen) are a mountain ranges system of the Alps in Central Europe. They are of economic importance, including as a watershed source of drinking water. They have many accessible dripstone and ice caves. Geography ...

. The municipality comprises the

cadastral communities A cadastral community or cadastral municipality, is a cadastral subdivision of municipalities in the nations of Austria,Cadastral Template for Austria, web-pageCT-AT Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, ...

(''Katastralgemeinden'') of Reitsam, Scharten, Sulzau, Werfen Markt, and Wimm.

History

Important trade routes passed through the Salzach valley since ancient times, when the area was part of the Roman Noricum province. ''Werven'' was first mentioned about 1140 AD. The settlement arose south of Hohenwerfen Castle, erected from 1075 at the behest of the Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg during the Investiture Controversy with King Henry IV of Germany. It is one of the oldest markets in the former

Archbishopric of Salzburg The Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg (german: Fürsterzbistum Salzburg; Erzstift Salzburg; Erzbistum Salzburg) was an ecclesiastical principality and state of the Holy Roman Empire. It comprised the secular territory ruled by the archbishops of ...

, with market privileges documented since 1425. At about the same time, the nearby parish of

Pfarrwerfen Pfarrwerfen is a municipality in the St. Johann im Pongau district in the Austrian state of Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a popul ...

was established, like the neighbouring settlement of

Werfenweng Werfenweng is a municipality in the St. Johann im Pongau district in the state of Salzburg in Austria. Population Politics The Mayor is Dr.Peter Brandauer from the ÖVP party. See also * Alpine pearls * Salzburgerland * Salzburg Salzb ...

in the east. AT-25241 Pfarrkirche hl

As the seat of the local administration, Werfen and the castle were heavily attacked during the

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt (german: Deutscher Bauernkrieg) was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It failed because of intense oppositio ...

in 1525/26. From 1675 onwards, numerous people in the environment of the local knacker Barbara Koller and her son Jakob were sentenced and executed in the

Zaubererjackl witch trials The Zaubererjackl trials or Salzburg witch trials, also known in history as the Magician Jackls process, which took place in the city of Salzburg in 1675–1690, was one of the largest and most famous witch trials in Austria Austria, , bar ...

. Werfen was also a centre of the expulsion of Salzburg Protestants under the rule of Prince-Archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian in 1731. In the late 18th century, a large

limonite Limonite () is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. The generic formula is frequently written as FeO(OH)·H2O, although this is not entirely accurate as the ratio of oxide to hydroxid ...

deposit was developed in Sulzau, which from 1770 became the most important ironworks (''Konkordiahütte'') in the Salzburg archbishopric. With the lands of the

secularised In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

prince-archbishopric, Werfen finally fell to the Austrian Empire by resolution of the

Vienna Congress The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

in 1816. The Salzburg-Tyrol Railway line from Salzburg to Wörgl opened in 1875, with stations in Sulzau, Tenneck, and Werfen. The secluded above the village of Tenneck is the site of the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

, a former hunting lodge of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau, which in 1908 was acquired by

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. F ...

. After the archduke's assassination in 1914, the

Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty The House of Habsburg-Lorraine (german: Haus Habsburg-Lothringen) originated from the marriage in 1736 of Francis III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Maria Theresa of Austria, later successively Queen of Bohemia, Queen of Hungary, Queen of Cr ...

sold the castle to the German

Krupp The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...

industrial magnates. The Krupp dynasty held the premises until the death of

Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach (24 January 1938 – 8 May 1986) was a German heir of the Krupp dynasty. Biography The son of Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (1907–1967) and Anneliese (nee Bahr) Lampert (1909–1998) (married 1937 – divo ...

in 1986, today the estates are privately owned by

Frederick R. Koch Frederick Robinson Koch ( ; August 26, 1933 – February 12, 2020) was an American collector and philanthropist, the eldest of the four sons born to American industrialist Fred Chase Koch, founder of what is now Koch Industries, and Mary Clemen ...

. A small portion of a picnic scene from '' The Sound of Music'' was filmed on a hillside of the village of Werfen.

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 ...

and crew filmed the opening shots of the " Do-Re-Mi" sequence with Hohenwerfen Castle in the background. Hohenwerfen was also the location for some filming of ''

Where Eagles Dare ''Where Eagles Dare'' is a 1968 war film directed by Brian G. Hutton and starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure. It follows a joint British-American Special Operations Executive team of paratroopers raiding a castle (shot on lo ...

''.

Politics

Seats in the municipal council (''Gemeinderat'') as of 2019 local elections: *

Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is currentl ...

(ÖVP): 10 *

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

(SPÖ): 6 * Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ): 3

Gallery

File:Werfen, straatzicht foto3 2011-07-17 15.06.JPG, Main square File:Eisriesenwelt Werfen Austria 02.jpg,

Cave File:Werfen - Burg Hohenwerfen (1).JPG,

File:Werfen 5.jpg, View from above

References

External links

Werfen official website

Werfen info website
{{authority control Cities and towns in St. Johann im Pongau District Tennen Mountains Berchtesgaden Alps Geological type localities