Bischofshofen (colloquially abbreviated "B'hofen") is a town with 10,580 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020) in the district of St. Johann im Pongau in the state of Salzburg in Austria and is located about 50 km south of the state capital Salzburg.
1 parish church of Maximilian
2 Frauenkirche
3 Georgi
Church
4 Buchberg Church
5 St. Rupert Mission House, today a
humanistic private high school
6 Museum at the Kastenturm, on
Pfarrplatz. Tel .: +43 6462 2972. Archeology of the area, sacred
art, Rupertus Cross (copy) Open: Open Wed, Fri, Sat 1 pm-5pm, Sun 10
am-5pm.
7 Bachsfall castle ruins (Pongowe), above the Gainfeld
waterfall
8 Paul Ausserleitner ski jump. The three-king
competition of the Four Hills Tournament is held annually on the
hill. The ski jump was built in 1947 as a Hochkönigschanze. The ski
jump is the largest of three ski jumping facilities in the Sepp
Bradl Stadium. It is named after Bubi Bradl, the first winner of the
Four Hills Tournament. The ski jumping area is freely accessible
except during competitions.
The place name developed from pongowe, the Maximilianszelle
(711/12), via Hove (1151), Hofen, Bischofhof, from around 1420 to
Bischofshofen.
In the High Middle Ages, the place had a
mystical high reputation and the secular lords of Pongau also held
high positions as the Salzburg-Bavarian ministerial family (giving).
From 1243 onwards, however, with the creation of the new location
Werfen under the protection of its castle, the center of the Pongau
shifted from both the Pongau old parish of St. Cyriak (Pfarrwerfen)
and from Hofen to the new Werfen market. The Goldeggers also
replaced the Lords of Pongowe.
From the end of the 19th
century, Bischofshofen assumed a pioneering role as a railway
junction and as a result of industrialization.
Historically,
from 1216 to 1803, Bischofshofen was divided into two parts: the
Chiemsee Hofmark around today's parish church and the district that
was subordinate to the Prince of Salzburg (Archbishop). The diocese
of Chiemsee was in turn an own diocese of the Salzburg church
itself.
History: The central Pongau around Bischofshofen
(like the Grauwackenzone) was an old central European copper mining
area of the pre- or. early Celtic population (similar to Uttendorf
im Pinzgau). The oldest grave finds date from the Hallstatt period
to the Latène period. There were other finds from this period. a. at
Götschenberg, at the Bachfall ruins and at the Sinnhubschlössl.
During the Iron Age, copper mining was stopped for 2500 years
and only rediscovered in 1827. At the Buchberg the mining took place
until 1959. Iron was in Bischofshofen from 1615, especially in the
17th and 18th Century. From the 5th century, especially in the 2nd /
1st Century BC, the Celtic salt mining dominates the Hallein
Dürrnberg.
15 BC - 488 AD - Roman times; Ostrogothic up
to 536, then Frankish or Bavarian rule
At the Frauenkirche
(mentioned for the first time on August 24, 1359) there was a lime
tombstone from Roman times (A. Lippert found remains of a Roman
building underneath), a Celtic coin from the 1st century BC (2019)
and surprisingly close on the hillside, some early to high medieval
graves from the 8th to 13th century AD (latest excavation 2019 by
the BDA). As a result, there must have been a very early predecessor
church to the Gothic Frauenkirche (cited in Höglinger). Until now,
the remains of the foundations had been assumed to be around 1000
AD.
The Roman road itself led via Hüttau sunny via Ani (in
the Ennstal) into the Lungau, like several milestones, mostly from
the 3rd / 4th. Century, document.
711/712: The first
documented mention of the wooded area (pongowe) in the Inner
Mountains is for the year 711/712, with the establishment of the
Maximilianszelle (Cella Maximiliana) as the predecessor of today's
parish church. This takes place under Bishop / Abbot Rupert von
Salzburg, with the consent of the Bavarian Dukes Theodo or his son
Theodbert who is present from the Agilolfinger family and the Albina
family (von der Albm).
The immediate conflict zone of
Bischofshofen on the border with the post-Norse, Slavic principality
of Carantania is documented by the destruction of the Maximilian
cell in the middle of the 8th century by Slavs. After another
destruction in 820, however, the new building followed immediately
in 821.
At that time, the Salzburg bishops partly provided
the chancellors of the Duchy of Bavaria. The Bischofshofener estates
are among the oldest named in the country and formed the nucleus of
the later Salzburg land acquisition. In the late Middle Ages, almost
50% of the goods belonged to the Salzburg archbishopric (manorial
rule), which were managed by landholders.
1025-1041
Archbishop Dietmar consecrated an altar.
In 1106-1216 a small
Augustinian canon monastery was founded, led by provosts.
The
name Hoven was first mentioned in a document in 1151.
In
1216/17 the small Augustinian canons founded in 1106 and several
manors came into the possession of the bishops of the newly created
Salzburg diocese of Chiemsee. Their legally sovereign Hofmark of
Kastenhof also came under the lower jurisdiction. The remaining part
of the emerging village was under the jurisdiction of Werfen.
In 1405 the name Bischofhof is mentioned for the first time in a
land register of the diocese.
The lords of Pongowe (Pongau)
form one of the oldest and respected ministerial families of the
archbishops in their castle above the Gainfeld waterfall (castle
ruins Bachsfall or Purchstall) in the 12th century. In the 13./14.
In the 19th century there were constant feuds between the
archbishops and the ministerials and Bavarian knight families; Vests
were built and later destroyed.
Although only a village, Bischofshofen was granted market and
market customs law (forum et mercatus) in the 14th century. The
oldest goods in the records from 1330 and 1350 all have Germanic
first names: Heinrich de Flechsberg (Flachberg), Meingotz an dem
Puchberg, Eisenbert, Altmann, Godewin, Percht ... These goods
designations are almost only used as field names today.
From
1500 to 1850 the so-called Little Ice Age prevailed with decreasing
profitability of agriculture.
In 1458 and especially in 1462
the farmers in the Inner Mountains (Pongau, Pinzgau, Brixental),
also in association with the city of Radstadt, rose up against new
taxes from the ecclesiastical ruler (consecration tax and
surcharges). A copy of the settlement made with the sovereign was
also issued for Bischofshofen in 1462.
1525/26: Pressured by
high tax pressure (and an increasing population to be fed), the
Salzburg Peasant Wars in 1525/26 also hit Bischofshofen. The
neighboring Hohenwerfen Castle was occupied by farmers and miners,
and the Hohensalzburg Fortress was besieged for three months.
However, the farmers are defeated at Zell am See and Radstadt by
auxiliary troops of the Swabian Federation. In 1564, farmers in
Bischofshofen appointed the Protestant Constantin Schlafhauser as
pastor, and unrest broke out. This was followed by the execution of
the insurgent farmers Wilhelm Egger (1565) and Hans Steiner. From
1570 to 1811, the descendants of the rebels took part in the blood
ram service, the delivery of a ram covered with a red woolen cloth.
In 1732 the evangelicals began to be expelled from the
prince-archbishopric of Salzburg, also from Bischofshofen. Over
4,000 people from the Bischofshofen and Werfen courts alone had to
leave the country. About 70% of the population put their faith
before their homeland and were mostly accepted into Prussia
(Salzburg exiles).
In 1775, the heavy flooding of the
Gainfeldbach in the village center claimed 16 lives. In 1803 the
church property was secularized and the state of Salzburg has been
part of Austria since 1816. The country did not recover for a long
time from the Napoleonic Wars and the struggles for freedom (around
1809, rifle commander Josef Struber) and the looting and the place
was, for example, in 1869 as in poor conditions. There has been a
(limited) elected council since 1850.
In 1848 Austria was
liberated (redeemed) from the manors.
The construction of the
railway around 1875, the option in South Tyrol with the construction
of a South Tyrolean settlement around 1940, the war displaced
persons and industrialization brought a high level of immigration.
In 1882, copper smelting was relocated from Mühlbach to Ausserfelden
(today Mitterberghütten) (which has not existed since 1977).
It was only through the construction of the Giselabahn to Wörgl in
Tyrol and the Kronprinz-Rudolf-Bahn towards Graz in 1875, the copper
mining in Mühlbach and the industrialization that Bischofshofen grew
into an economic center in Pongau and an early Salzburg center of
social democracy and became in the consequence on February 9, 1900
raised to the market town. Due to the continuous development into an
important business and shopping center in the region, Bischofshofen
received city rights on September 24, 2000.
By plane
Salzburg Airport (IATA code: SZB) is approx. 50 km
away.
By train
There are direct connections from 1
Bischofshofen train station to Salzburg, Villach and Vienna
(Westbahnhof).
By bus
In the street
From Salzburg you
can reach Bischofshofen via the A10 Tauern Autobahn, Pongau
junction, or alternatively via the B159
By bike (optional)
Bischofshofen is on the Tauern Cycle Path