Austrian Wake-up

Taking the train from Munich to Innsbruck was a lot of fun, I must say, even if all my pictures from the train turned out blurry!

It's a short trip; just under two hours. As soon as you cross the Austrian border, you stop at a little town on the Inn called Kufstein.

Outside of Kufstein, with the Inn River
looking unusually placid.

Kufstein's #1 landmark is a fortress perched on a hill: Festung Kufstein

Seen from the bridge over the Inn

I hear you now: "Sara, this has something to do with Emperor Maximilian, doesn't it?" Why yes, how discerning of you! 

Kufstein Fortress was first mentioned in a document dating from 1205, and about 300 years later, Maximilian besieged it with his troops, acting in his capacity as territorial ruler of Tyrol. 

The siege of Kufstein, 1504*

This was actually part of a war of succession between the Upper-Bavarian and Palatine line of the House of Wittelsbach. Maximilian was on the side of the Bavarians, since his sister Kunigunde (I know, poor girl) had been married to Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria since 1487.  

After the battle, Kufstein and two other territories belonged to Tyrol. It was one of Maximilian's few successful battles for territory, and of course he wanted it memorialized. Here it is, one of the 'slides' in his monumental pictorial ode to himself, the Triumphal Procession (Triumphzug):

Even though Max has gone down in history as 'the last knight' (not a contemporary nickname, by the way) he was quite innovative when it came to warfare. Under his command, infantry troops became more prevalent: they wore fancy clothes and were called 'Landsknechten'. Battalions of foot soldiers armed with pikes had the advantage over the old style warrior, armored knights on horseback.

Battle Scene from Weiß-Kunig
by Hans Burgkmair

You see one of Maximilian's other innovations in that print too: artillery. He didn't invent it, but he exploited it more fully than other rulers had done to that point. 

Which brings me to the title of this blog. Whimsically enough, Max liked to name his cannon. He named them things like Schöne Kathl (Pretty Kate), the Turkish Empress, and Purlepaus. My favorite nickname is 'Weckauf aus Österreich': Austrian Wake-up. 

A replica of ol' Wake-up
from Fortress Kufstein

Here are some more pictures from my day at the fortress:

After Max blew it up, he rebuilt it again, and today Festung Kufstein remains one of his most important building projects. The walls of the Kaiserturm are anywhere between 4 and 7.5 meters thick at various points! 

Max commemorated in a later fresco

When in doubt, eat pastry. This is a 'Krapfen',
filled with delicious apricot preserves. 

*Kufstein 1504 Image courtesy of Dnalor 01- CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons