To go along with Gerhard's (Gregory's) recent thread of the museum in Vienna - we also made a run to Salzburg, where we took some time to view the inner portions of Fortress Hohensalzburg, the largest, most fully-preserved fortresses in all of central Europe.
So, here are a few images of the smithy's shop for those interested in the original tools that were used.
Note: These images are the original size, even though they were Photoshopped to increase download speed, they are still considered to be a large file.
I have more, interior shots of the fortress; if there's enough interest I'll post more.
Note the tools date back to the 19th century at earliest and are not medieval. The anvil shape and the style of bellows in particular.
The hammers with the gap across them are called top swages and are used in conjunction with a chunk of metal with a similiar gap that fits in the hardy hole to shape tennons---the hardy hole is a pretty recent development being only about 200 years old.
I'll note it is indeed one of the largest fortresses in Europe, but its preservation is due largely in part that it was used straight into the 19th century. I'm sure it is not close to being one of the most well-preserved medieval fortifications, as much Baroch and later styles influence this fortress greatly. The original fortifications were largely destroyed or built over through the centuries, in an attempt to keep things up to speed with the rest of Europe.
The most annoying thing I found about the Salzburg fortress is that one has really very little access to the walls - there's only one small area, with about 4 gun ports and canon behind them. The rest of it you can't really get near. The Medieval chapel was neat, though, and the view is not to be missed!
I liked the chip out of the column from cannon bombardment during a peseant rebellion. You could probably catch the cannon balls and throw them back down for greater damage to the attackers...
On my first visit to Germany we were going along the Rhine and my guidbook said that Marksburg Castle (near Cologne) was the only castle along that section that had not been destroyed by Napoleon and re-built during the german romantic period in the mid 1800's.
I was stationed over there, I saw Hidelburg, (sp) Newswanstine(sp), and a shit load of others. Hell man... one can drive clear across their country in less than half a day. Being from Texas.... thems seems really small.... places
I got a story to tell about the German WWII vet... He was the Umpa of the farming family I lived with.
Maeglin Oronar wrote:Yeah i see the axe in the last and second to last pictures.
its off to the left
right next to waldo!
Great pics!
Damon wrote:In their own little world they are like this huge evil overlord however in the grand scheme of things they are just this sad little hamster going squeek squeek squeek in their own little ball.
its off to the left
![[img]http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6418/1204632818af828ddaeo7fq.th.jpg[/img]](http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6418/1204632818af828ddaeo7fq.jpg){kind=link}