The thirteenth century Austrian fortress at Kufstein guards a much fought over pass into Bavaria amid magnificent Alpine scenery. The fortress changed hands between the Bavarians, the Empire and Austria before eventually becoming a prison holding dissidents and now a museum.
Visiting Kufstein Fortress
Kufstein, for us anyway, involved a long but scenic drive to get to. There is plenty of parking in the town and it is worth crossing to the other side of the river to look at the castle perched on the rock as it is otherwise difficult to appreciate.
There is a funicular that goes up to the castle from the ticket office or you can walk through the defensive tunnels that zig zag up the hillside. Entrance is around €12 and there is certainly a good two or three hours worth of entertainment on the site. There is a local history museum as well as a floor devoted to the political prisoners held in the nineteenth century. There is also a dress up area for children to use and armour and weapons to try on.
My Experience
My visit to the fortress at Kufstein was part of a longer trip to the Austrian Tyrol, detailed in my blog here.
Kufstein is a beautiful Austrian Tyrolean town on the river Inn (of Innsbruk fame) that just happens to be dominated by a massive castle. This is built on a sheer rock outcrop and over the years has expanded to cover the entire upper surface of the rock. The castle bounced between the control of Bavaria and the Habsburgs for 500 years with Maximillian I creating the famous round tower that is a symbol of the castle. After its military purpose ended it became a political prison for those deemed too liberal by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Which was just about anyone who lifted their forehead off the ground. It is now a tourist attraction and museum.
We parked in the town centre and then promptly lost sight of the aforementioned castle that dominates the town and got lost. I crossed the river to get my bearings, such as they are and then we headed in a vaguely correct direction until we found the castle entrance. We paid our €25 entrance and took the funicular to the upper courtyard and keep complex.
The castle is well signposted for each of the museums and they generally have a decent amount of English explanations, although some were lacking. Before the funicular there was a man powered treadmill to get goods from the ground to the upper levels of the castle! This is still in place along with a wooden gallery overlooking the courtyard. The next courtyard has the castle cafe where we paused for a coffee before continuing our tour.
The castle includes museums of local history, costumes and culture, arms and armour (including replicas you can try on), a history of Maximillian I and the castle and the political prison. There are also gun batteries, a herb garden, the worlds largest open air organ (that we didn’t visit) and a rock cut tunnel that extended for a couple of hundred metres linking two parts of the castle. Although I’m sure you’re thinking this was just another castle it was that but also a superb set of museums and a tour through 500 years of Tyrolean history. The views were pretty good too.
Kufstein Fortress Photo Gallery
Kufstein Fortress from the Inn west bank 
Kufstein Fortress from the Inn west bank 
The Maximillian Tower 
Try on this gauntlet 
Kufstein fortress from the south on 171
History
The fortress was mentioned for the first time as a possession of the Duke of Bavaria and the bishop of Regensburg as early as 1205, although its oldest appearance in war dates back only to 1336, when it prevented the passage of Charles, Margrave of Morena, by doing so thus failing in its persecution of the Bavarians. Kufstein then joined the Tyrol in 1342, when the Tyrolean duchess Margaret “Maultasch” received the city as a gift from her husband Ludwig of Brandenburg on the occasion of their wedding. The Bavarians, however, asked for their return at the time they decided to cede the Tyrol to Duke Rudolf IV of Habsburg, and successfully breaking into the city, they took it over. In 1504, however, the fortress came into the possession of the House of Habsburg following the Landshut War of Succession by King Maximilian I, King of Tyrol. In 1703, after almost 200 years, Elector Prince Maximilian II of Bavaria advanced against Kufstein in the event of the Spanish succession war, besieging the city in vain until the following year, as Kufstein was returned to the Austrians. The Bavarian flag, however, returned to waving over the fortress in 1806, when Napoleon assigned the entire Tyrol to Bavaria with the Peace of Presburg, stipulated together with Francis Joseph I of Austria. In 1814, with the Congress of Vienna, the Tyrol returned to Austrian rule; after the First World War the Republic of Austria sold the castle to the city of Kufstein, which has owned it since 1924.
The Heldenorgel, literally “Organo degli Eroi”, is the impressive organ with 4307 canes and 46 registers located within the fortress. Its main feature that makes it the flagship of Kufstein is the distance that amounts to more than 100 m between the keyboard, located at the foot of the castle, and the tip of the reeds. This last detail creates an obvious delay in issuing notes, which makes it extremely complicated for the organist to play this truly unique instrument. The concerts that are held every day at noon can be heard on the streets of the entire city of Kufstein.
References
Information on visiting the castle is on the town’s website here.
The history above is copied from the histouring site here.