Salzburg becomes a federal state of Austria

For more than 1000 years Salzburg was an independent principality under the rule of prince archbishops. The prince archbishop held the autority of the pope north of the alps for the “Holy Roman Empire of German Nations”. He had the sovereignty to mint money, hold courts of justice, and collects taxes. The salt from the Dürrnberg – the white gold – was source of his financial success.

However, all this changed in 1803 when Archbishop Hieronymus Graf Colloredo fled to Vienna to escape the advancing Napoleonic troops. The time for secularisation had finally come.

In 1816, Salzburg became a federal state of Austria and established a provincial government.