Hohenwer”fun”

Located over the Salzach Valley, Hohenwerfen Castle is a large and imposing medieval fortress positioned like a sentry over the town of Werfen. Despite being so imposing, the castle is quite a magnificent site with its pinnacle towers jutting into the sky like arrows.

The most exhilarating part of Hohenwerfen Castle is its incredible falconry display. The birds that flew in this demonstration ranged from the spunky Cooper’s Hawk to the huge and graceful Golden Eagle. One of the amazing parts of the show was how the falconers figured out when to release and call back their birds. In the middle of the demonstration, two wild Buzzards flew over the walls of the castle, but caused no major disturbances in the show. Towards the end of the show, when the falconers were calling back their original birds, a Cooper’s Hawk took a huge dive and almost went through a tree on the way down. One of the most amazing things about the show was that birds that would attack each other in the wild, such as Peregrine Falcons and Golden Eagles, flew at the same time. The only inconveniences for me were that the falconers did not speak English and that the hill back up to the main castle was very steep. Overall, the falconry show was the best part of Hohenwerfen Castle.

The inside of Hohenwerfen Castle was almost as cool as the falconry show. One of my favorite parts of the tour that we took was the Chapel Hall, with its ornate furnishings and velvet decor. Outside of the Chapel Hall, there are paintings of a knight and a nine-headed horse on the wall. After the Chapel Hall, we went down the stairs to the cannon slots, which features ancient cannons and the pitch kitchen. The pitch kitchen was a room where boiling pitch was made and lifted up a shoot to be poured onto the heads of enemies who tried to siege the castle. The view from the unused cannon slots made me feel like a falcon when I was looking over the beautiful valley below me. Another cool part of the tour was going up the bell tower and getting to view and hear the bell ringing from up close. Overall, Hohenwerfen Castle may have been the most picturesque fortress on this trip.