Kaprun Castle, Medieval fortress in Kaprun, Austria
Kaprun Castle is a castle ruin on a hilltop above the town of Kaprun in the Austrian state of Salzburg. The surviving stone walls, towers, and interior rooms show how a medieval fortified complex was arranged across its different levels.
The castle was built in the 12th century and passed through the hands of several noble families, including the Counts of Falkenstein and the Archbishops of Salzburg. It gradually fell out of use in the late medieval period and was left to decay over the following centuries.
The name of the castle comes from the town of Kaprun that sits just below it. Today the site hosts concerts and theater performances inside the old walls, giving the ruins a second life as a gathering place for locals and visitors alike.
The ruin sits on a hill and is reached by a footpath where solid shoes are a good idea since the ground is uneven in places. Guided tours run regularly in summer, though the site can also be visited outside that season.
The North Tower contains a cellar whose wooden beams have been dated to the 10th century, making them among the oldest surviving wooden elements in the whole region. The rest of the complex was built two centuries later, so this older structure was likely incorporated from an earlier building on the same spot.
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