Although in ancient times Celtic and Roman settlers inhabited the valley, Salzburg’s modern history begins with the Bishop St. Rupert, a crusading Franconian who in the late seventh century founded the Abbey of St. Peter, today the oldest Benedictine cloister north of Italy. By the eighth century, Salzburg was promoted to an archbishopric, and its political and economic rise was underway, eventually affording the archbishops the title of Princes of the Holy Roman Empire. By mining and selling salt from the Salzkammergut, and through their expansive realm, the prince-archbishops amassed the wealth reflected in the grand architecture that marks the altstadt today.
