Bürgerwehr, Fortification on the Mönchsberg in Salzburg, Austria

The Bürgerwehr is a fortification on the Mönchsberg mountain that spans approximately 190 meters and connects the western city walls with medieval fortifications at the mountain's base. The structure includes several towers and was surrounded by defensive ditches.

The Bürgerwehr was built around 1465–1480 as part of Salzburg's second city fortification, during the term of mayor Hans Glavenberger from 1482. It was erected amid the first peasant unrest, the growing Turkish threat and the conflict between Emperor Frederick III and Archbishop Bernhard von Rohr, who backed Matthias Corvinus of Hungary while the citizens sided with the emperor. The wall initially had two towers and a zwinger, and was expanded to eight towers within a few decades; the six newer towers had wooden rear walls, still visible inside some of them. A covered wooden walkway on the walls was largely destroyed by fire in 1822.

The restaurant in the north-eastern part of the Bürgerwehr has existed since 1863; it was once called Zur Bürgerwehr and is now the Stadtalm. Since 1950 the Naturfreunde have run it together with a small youth hostel. Two of the towers are still lived in today.

The Bürgerwehr lies on the Mönchsberg ridge above Salzburg's old town; the Stadtalm restaurant and small hostel occupy its north-eastern section. A stairway built by the city in 1892 climbs from the Riedenburg district through Paris Lodron's wall on the western slope. The defensive ditch in front of the main wall is largely filled in and overgrown with trees, which blocks the view of the walls from outside.

After 1575, one tower housed prisoners assigned to fortification maintenance work. This dual purpose shows how the structure served both military defense and administrative functions.