History Of Bischofshofen
The name of the town, Bischofshofen, dates back to the High Middle Ages, more precisely to references of Pongauui and Pongowe in the eighth century. Combining with spelling variants, these early allusions finally became the name connected to the area. Significantly, historical proof of the site comes from the Maximilian cell, which was founded close to Saint Maximilian in 711/712. “De Hoven” first appeared in 1151 and meant “from the farms.” Later, around 1290–1291 the phrase “Houen episcopi Chyemensis” appeared, alluding to the Courts of the Bishop of Chiemsee.
The name Bischofshofen contains the word “hof,” which denotes a closed or guarded property. Addition of the dative plural “-hofen” denotes the existence of several structures or characteristics grouped together in a same setting. Early on in history, Bischofshofen claimed to be a possession of the Chiemsee bishop, made up of a number of linked buildings or territories. The Chiemsee diocese was ruled by the Salzburg Archbishop at the time it was first mentioned in its specific form. Bischofshofen was formally recognised within the diocese in 1405 when it was listed as a bishop’s estate in German documents.
Prehistory and early history
The largest copper ore deposit in the Eastern Alps historically has been found in the central Pongau region, which is focused around Bischofshofen and includes the Grauwacken zone with its Mitterberg area. Found ceramic shards at locations like Götschenberg and the Bachsfall ruins, archeological evidence links intermittent Neolithic copper ore exploitation to the fourth millennium BC. About 1400–1000 BC saw the onset of extensive copper mining, which peaked in the first century BC. But from the Iron Age and into the Roman era, copper mining fell precipitously.
The municipality of Mühlbach am Hochkönig’s Troiboden excavation turned up a wet building site with wood dated to 1377/76 BC by dendrochronology. 280 logs from holes ranging in date from the 14th century BC to the Roman era were found. Although copper mining was revived in 1827 at Bischofshofener Buchberg and in the nearby village of Mühlbach am Hochkönig, low global trade prices caused a setback, which resulted in the closure of Bischofshofen in 1959 and Mühlbach in 1977. Iron mining had, interestingly, been carried out from at least 1615 till the 18th century before this.
The area is even more significant archaeologically because of the urn grave discoveries from Götschenberg and the Bachsfall ruins, which provide windows into the Hallstatt era.
Antiquity
What is now Bischofshofen has archeological evidence from the Noricum period (15 BC to 488 AD) that points to the presence of a vicus, or little settlement. Notably, a headstone honoring a 30-year-old daughter of an aedile from Iuvavum (modern-day Salzburg) and his wife Dignila was found within the Church of Our Lady, together with ruins of a Roman edifice. Now kept at the Vienna Art History Museum, this tombstone was found in the early 1800s.
Further historical richness to the area was revealed in 2017 when Federal Monuments Office excavations uncovered a Celtic coin from the first century BC. Close to the slope were also discovered early to high medieval burials dating from the eighth to the thirteenth century. These results cast doubt on earlier theories on the time of the Gothic Frauenkirche’s founding, which place it around 1000 AD.
Markers from the third and fourth century show that the Roman road that crossed Hüttau and connected Iuvavum to Imurium in modern-day Lungau did not cross where Bischofshofen is now. This realization provides important details about the Roman period road system in the area.
Middle Ages
The historical core of current Bischofshofen is the Albina family’s establishment of Maximilianszelle in 711/12. Built originally to convert the Slavs, the cell was destroyed in the early eighth century, then rebuilt, destroyed again in 820, and rebuilt again. It became a little Augustinian canon monastery in 1139, and by 1216 the bishops of Chiemsee had taken control of it, forcing its demise. After the cell was transformed into the box tower and the toponym was altered to Bischofhof, Pongowe or Pongo/Pongau was abandoned.
The foundation of later land development in Salzburg was formed by the manorial authority of the Salzburg Archbishopric over around half of the estates in Bischofshofen in the late Middle Ages. Beginning in 1292, the church estates in Bischofshofen were essential to the local ecclesiastical administration; from that time on, all of the priests in the area were recognized by name.
The powerful Salzburg ministerial family the Lords of Pongowe/Pongau were probably involved in secular authority over Bischofshofen starting in the eleventh century and most definitely in the twelfth and thirteenth. Remarkably, this family has been known by almost twenty names. One of this family members, Ruediger de hoven/pongau, owned Plankenau Castle near St. Johann. The Pongauers may have derived from Pinzgau, as seen by the appearance of Heinricus de stempo (Henry the Stempe) in 1140 who had ties to Thumersbach. Contemporaries to the Pongauers were the Rastatters (Radstädter), who were likewise associated as knightly adherents.
Bischofshofen was significant economically even though it was a hamlet since it was granted market and market customs privileges (forum et mercatus) in the fourteenth century. Germanic first names including Heinrich de Flechsberg (Flachberg), Meingotz a dem Puchberg, Eisenbert, Altmann, Godewin, and Percht were found among the proprietors of the earliest estates when directories from 1330 and 1350 are examined. A few of these have survived as field names, indicating the landscape’s ongoing historical ties.
Modern times
The consecration fee and surcharges were among the new levies levied by the ecclesiastical sovereign that led to peasant uprisings in the Inner Mountains in the late 15th and early 16th century. Especially, Bischofshofen was affected by the Salzburg Peasants’ Wars in 1525–1526 because of intense tax pressure and a rising population. Farmer and miner occupation of Hohenwerfen Castle resulted in a three-month siege of the Hohensalzburg Castle. Though they had some early success, the farmers were defeated at Zell am See and Radstadt by auxiliary forces from the Swabian Confederation.
Unrest sprung out in 1564 when Protestant Constantin Schlafhauser was appointed pastor of Bischofshofen. Then in 1565, dissident farmers Wilhelm Egger and Hans Steiner were put to death. The blood ram ritual, which involved delivering a ram draped in a scarlet woolen fabric, was performed by the rebels’ ancestors from 1570 until 1811.
In Salzburg, the Prince-Archdiocese, Protestants were first expelled in 1732. Only from the Bischofshofen and Werfen courts were about 4,000 people compelled to flee; many of them sought safety as Salzburg exiles in East Prussia. Although just 10 families left the town of Bischofshofen proper, many rural residents did the same. Then more people were brought in from Rupertiwinkel and other far-off places. The difficulties experienced by the uprooted residents were made worse by the extended vacancy or poor management of farms by some immigrants, which accelerated Pongau’s and the region’s economic downturn.
Sixteen people lost their life in the 1775 flood that struck the village center of Bischofshofen. This natural calamity made the problems in the town more worse and showed the variety of obstacles that molded Bischofshofen’s historical course at this time.
19th century to today
The ecclesiastical property was secularized in 1803, during the Napoleonic era, which briefly turned the Salzburg Archbishopric into a German electorate. Berchtesgaden and Salzburg were included into the Austrian Empire in 1805, but in 1810 they were returned to the Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1816 Salzburg merged into Austria permanently. Bischofshofen and the surrounding area faced difficult circumstances following the Napoleonic Wars and the 1809 liberation struggle.
It was in newly established political communities that a (limited) elected municipal council was first established in 1850. Immigration was largely influenced by the building of the railway about 1875, the 1940 South Tyrolean settlement, the flood of war refugees, and industrialization. Moved from Mühlbach to Ausserfelden (now Mitterberghütten) in 1882, the copper smelting factory closed in 1977.
Because to the industrial advancements, the Gisela Railway to Wörgl in Tyrol, the Kronprinz-Rudolf-Bahn towards Graz in 1875, and the Tauern Railway in 1908, Bischofshofen developed into an economic hub in Pongau. February 9, 1900, saw it awarded market town status. Social housing projects were carried out between 1921 and 1930, and in 1927–1929 the newly built secondary school (Moßhammerschule) was deemed the most modern in the state.
Numerous clubs, especially in winter sports, were established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These included the Railway Music Band (1896), the Schiklub (1904), the Bauernschützen (1908), and the ATSV (Workers’ Gymnastics and Sports Club) in 1919.
Widespread unemployment, poverty, and Nazi propaganda impact resulted from the 1931 shutdown of the copper mining sector during the world economic crisis. Significant corporate and industrial settlements like Liebherr, Kessel-Loos (Bosch), and Techno-Z brought Bischofshofen a good turn after World War II. Still, there were structural shifts, including the downturn of the glass and copper industries and the loss of jobs in the railway industry as a result of digitization and automation.
Notwithstanding obstacles, Bischofshofen persevered in growing into an important regional business and retail hub, obtaining city status on September 24, 2000. A new city hotel set to open in 2021 and a traffic-calmed town center are just two of the ongoing projects meant to boost tourist. A further attraction of the area is the 2015-founded Ore of the Alps Geopark.
