More Touring

Kufstein

We had a pleasant overnight in a small town at the B&B that Pam found. 

Then, after a hearty breakfast, we headed to Kufstein. This is fortress town, very important in Tirolean history. It went back and forth into Bavarian and Tirolean hands over the centuries. The region was virally important as Europe’s  main source of silver and copper (the marketing of which was much controlled by the Fugger family in Augsburg) up until about Reformation times, after which the sources were depleted, and new sources were sought and found in the New World. 

Our first view of the city.

Wood carvings 

The bank

Marvelous stone carving of a river barge with the fortress (Festung) in the background.

The bank building, once and now. The city used to have a moat around it. 

A bronze map of the city and fortress.

The gold dot is where the bronze (and Bank and we) were. 

Crèche from logs

Heading up to the church at the base of the fortress

Renaissance era tombstones

Church interior. St. Vitus.

Upper part of a marble tombstone 

Carved, painted, and gilded wood

The organ balcony 

Then onward and upward to the fortress. Note the covered wooden walkway wending its way upward. And to the left of it, a little cable car, if one would choose not to walk up. We walked. 

And walked

And walked

All along the passageway, there had been heavy, metal-clad doors to close to defend the access. An ingenious system….

But…

The last time the fortress was taken was in the 1700‘s, by four officers and 50 soldiers, who came through an unprotected window, as the city below was burning. So much for defended passages. The story was told at the top of the walkway.









To be continued….