Province of Salzburg - holidays like in paradise.

Salzburg is not only the name of the city where Mozart was born, it is also the name of a province which was a principality for almost 1.000 years and is now divided into five “Gau� regions.

Following the Salzach River upstream towards the south, one very soon gets to Salzburg´s mountain regions, the Tennengau, the Pongau, the Pinzgau and the Lungau. The region was in pre-Christian times inhabited by Celts and then by Romans.

People were attracted by salt, copper and Tauern gold. When the Romans abandoned the country and retreated southwards, the advancing Germans settled here.

In the 7th century, the Franconian missionary St. Ruprecht founded the Abbey of St. Peter and converted the country to Christianity. By clever acquisition of land, the archbishop became a mighty buttress of the Holy Roman Empire. During centuries, the prince-bishops who drew considerable incomes from real estate, the salt mines near Hallein and the gold mines in the Tauern mountains, won great political influence.

Only in 1816, the province became a part of Austria.