Bischofshofen () is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in the district of St. Johann im Pongau in the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n federal state of

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

. It is an important traffic junction located both on the Salzburg-Tyrol Railway line and at the

Tauern Autobahn The Tauern Autobahn (A 10) is an autobahn (motorway) in Austria. It starts at the Salzburg junction with the West Autobahn (A1), runs southwards, crosses the Tauern mountain range on the main chain of the Alps and leads to the Süd Autobahn ...

, a major highway route crossing the

main chain of the Alps The main chain of the Alps, also called the Alpine divide is the central line of mountains that forms the drainage divide of the range. Main chains of mountain ranges are traditionally designated in this way, and generally include the highest p ...

Geography

Bischofshofen is situated within the

Northern Limestone Alps The Northern Limestone Alps (), also called the Northern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps north of the Central Eastern Alps located in Austria and the adjacent Bavarian lands of southeastern Germany. The distinction from the ...

, in the valley of the

Salzach The Salzach (Austrian: �saltsax ) is a river in Austria and Germany. It is in length and is a right tributary of the Inn (river), Inn, which eventually joins the Danube. Its drainage basin of comprises large parts of the Northern Limeston ...

river, about south of the state capital

. It is surrounded by the Hochkönig massif in the west, part of the

Berchtesgaden Alps The Berchtesgaden Alps (, ) are a mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps, named after the market town of Berchtesgaden located in the centre. It is crossed by the Austria–Germany border: the central part belongs to the Berchtesgadener Lan ...

, the Tennen Mountains in the northeast, and the

Salzburg Slate Alps The Salzburg Slate Alps () are a mountain range of the Eastern Alps, in the Austrian state of Salzburg (state), Salzburg. Situated within the greywacke zone, they could be regarded either as part of the Northern Limestone Alps or of the Central E ...

in the southeast. The municipal area comprises the cadastral communities of Bischofshofen proper, Buchberg, Haidberg, and Winkl.

Villages in Bischofshofen and population

* Alpfahrt - 149 * Bischofshofen - 7.134 * Buchberg - 440 * Gainfeld - 109 * Haidberg - 98 * Kreuzberg - 263 * Laideregg - 488 * Mitterberghütten - 1.323 * Winkl - 83 * Asten - 50

History

In Neolithic times local

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

tribes mined copper and salt in the nearby hills. Later, the Celts were conquered by or assimilated into the expanding

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, when the area was incorporated into the ''

Noricum Noricum () is the Latin name for the kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, R ...

'' province. In the 3rd/4th century, a

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

led from the Salzach valley to Radstadt on the Enns river. In the 8th century, Bavarian tribes settled the region, promoted by the Agilolfing dukes and Bishop

Rupert of Salzburg Rupert of Salzburg (, ; 660 – 710 AD) was Prince-Bishopric of Worms, Bishop of Worms as well as the first Bishop of Salzburg and abbot of St Peter's Abbey, Salzburg, St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg. He was a contemporary of the Francia, Frank ...

. The Pongau (''pongowe'') area was first mentioned in a 711 deed, when a monastery (''Cella Maximiliana'') was founded through the graces of the Salzburg archbishops and a noble family from Oberalm. Slavic tribes later destroyed this monastery. The village of ''Hoven'' itself first appeared in 1151. In the 12th century, the Archbishop of Salzburg gifted the present-day St. Maxmillian's church with the gold- and gem-encrusted relic St. Rubert's crucifix. Located south of the Salzburg Werfen valley, Bischofshofen was vested with

market rights A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in the 14th century and rose to become an administrative center and residence for the Bishops of Chiemsee. It declined through the turbulent 16th century with its natural disasters, economic decline and religious warfare, culminating in the

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt () was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising befor ...

of 1525–26. More than two thirds of the local population were expelled during the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

measures instigated by Prince-archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian from 1731 onwards. Many of the

Salzburg Protestants The Salzburg Protestants () were Protestantism, Protestant refugees who had lived in the Catholic Archbishopric of Salzburg until the 18th century. In a series of persecutions ending in 1731, over 20,000 Protestants were expelled from their homel ...

found a new home in

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

. Finally Bischofshofen re-emerged as a railway hub with the building of the Salzburg-Tyrol Railway line in the late 19th century. It was elevated to the status of a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

in 1900 and received

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...

on 24 September 2000.

Education

In Bischofshofen there are: * Elementary Schools ** VS Markt ** VS Neue Heimat ** VS Pöham * High Schools: ** Hermann-Wielandner-HS ** Franz-Moßhammer-HS * Professional Education ** Polytechnische Schule ** Privatgymnasium Sankt Rupert ** TS Bischofshofen der Salzburger Tourismusschule

** die BAKIP, Bundesbildungsanstalt für Kindergartenpädagogik ** Zweigstelle des Musikum

Sports

The final competition of the traditional Four Hills Tournament in ski jumping is held annually at the Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze in Bischofshofen around 6 January. The large hill ski jumping events at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1999 took place in Bischofshofen.

Mayor

Hansjörg Obinger (SPÖ) is the mayor of Bischofshofen since April 2014. His predecessor was Jakob Rohrmoser (ÖVP).

Politics

City Council

As of 2014 local elections, the political parties represented in the Bischofshofen City Council are: *

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

(15 seats) *

ÖVP The Austrian People's Party ( , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since January 2025, the party has been led by Christian Stocker (as an acting leader). It is currently the second-largest p ...

(8 seats) *

FPÖ The Freedom Party of Austria (, FPÖ) is a political party in Austria, variously described as far-right, right-wing populist, national-conservative, and Eurosceptic. It has been led by Herbert Kickl since 2021. It is the largest of five par ...

(2 seats)

Twin towns — sister cities

Bischofshofen is twinned with: *

Unterhaching Unterhaching (; Central Bavarian: ''Haching'') is the second largest municipality in the district of Munich in Bavaria, Germany, located to the south of Munich city centre and easily accessible via two federal motorways, Bundesautobahn 8 and Bunde ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, Germany, since 1979 *

Adeje Adeje is a town and municipality in the southwestern part of the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, and part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (province), Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. The town Adeje is located 4 km from ...

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife (; locally ), commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz, is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and one of the capitals of the Canary Islands, along with Las Palmas. Santa Cruz has a ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, Spain

Notable people

* Heinz Oberhummer (1941–2015), physicist, researched

nucleosynthesis Nucleosynthesis is the process that creates new atomic nuclei from pre-existing nucleons (protons and neutrons) and nuclei. According to current theories, the first nuclei were formed a few minutes after the Big Bang, through nuclear reactions in ...

Sport

* Hannes Schroll (1909–1985), Austrian Alpine ski racer and founded the

Sugar Bowl Ski Resort Sugar Bowl is a ski and snowboard area in northern Placer County near Norden, California along the Donner Pass of the Sierra Nevada, approximately west of Reno, Nevada on Interstate 80, that opened on December 15, 1939. Sugar Bowl is a mediu ...

in Norden, California. * Paul Ausserleitner (1925–1952), ski jumper * Lisi Pall (born 1951), alpine skier * Patrick Reiter (born 1972), judoka.

References

External links

Municipal site

{{Authority control Cities and towns in St. Johann im Pongau District