Archbishop Gebhard and King Henry IV had an argument. Not a little tiff, but a full blown fight about who was entitled to appoint Bishops. The King or the Pope. So, in 1077, Gebhard, or Geby as his friends called him, started building a number of fortresses, Salzburg and Werfen among them, in order to tell the King who's boss...
Gebhard would have been better off, to open his fortresses to the tourists. This way he would have made more money, than by appointing Bishops. And, after all, that's what it was all about.
Wooden stairs and ladders lead to openings in the walls, which enabled the defenders to pour tar and pitch onto uninvited guests. They could also shoot arrows or musket balls through these slits in the walls.
Heavy artillery lined the perimeter of the fortress. The Archbishop was not joking.
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