Duchy of Salzburg

Duchy of Salzburg
Herzogtum Salzburg
Crownland of the Austrian Empire and later Austria-Hungary

1849–1918
Flag Coat of arms
Duchy of Salzburg within Austria-Hungary
Capital Salzburg
Languages German
Government Duchy
History
 -  Established 1849
 -  Disestablished 1918
Area
 -  1880 7,155 km² (2,763 sq mi)
Population
 -  1880 est. 500,000 
     Density 69.9 /km²  (181 /sq mi)

The Duchy of Salzburg (German: Herzogtum Salzburg) was a Cisleithanian Kronland of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary from 18491918. Its capital was Salzburg, while other towns in the duchy included Zell am See and Gastein.

The Archbishopric of Salzburg was secularized in 1803 as the Electorate of Salzburg, but the short-lived principality was annexed by the Austrian Empire in 1805. After the Napoleonic Wars, the Salzburg territory was administered from Linz as the department of Salzach within the Archduchy of Upper Austria.

By the Treaty of Schönbrunn of 1809, Salzburg became French and was released in 1810 to the Kingdom of Bavaria, where it formed the Salzachkreis. After the Peace of Paris it came back to Austria in 1816 (Treaty of Munich), with the exception of the Salzburg's share of the left bank of the River Salzach, the so-called Rupertiwinkel, which, like Berchtesgaden, remained in Bavaria.

After the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas, the Salzburg territory was separated from Upper Austria and became a new Kronland, the Duchy of Salzburg, in 1849. It became part of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

With the fall of the kaiserlich und königlich House of Habsburg in 1918, the duchy was succeeded by the state of Salzburg, part of first German Austria and then the First Austrian Republic.

References