Werfen is a market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 in the St. Johann im Pongau district, in the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n state of Salzburg

Salzburg (state)

Salzburg is a state or Land of Austria with an area of 7,156 km2, located adjacent to the German border. It is also known as Salzburgerland, to distinguish it from its capital city, also named Salzburg...

. It is located in the Pongau region, on the southern rim of the Berchtesgaden Alps

Berchtesgaden Alps

The Berchtesgaden Alps are a mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps, named after the market town of Berchtesgaden located in the centre...

 in the valley of the Salzach

Salzach

The Salzach is a river in Austria and Germany. It is a right tributary of the Inn and is 225 kilometres in length.The river's name is derived from the German word Salz, meaning "salt". Until the 19th century shipping of salt down the river was an important part of the local economy...

 river, about 40 km (24.9 mi) south of the city of Salzburg

Salzburg

-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

. The municipality comprises the Katastralgemeinde

Katastralgemeinde

A Katastralgemeinde , a German word , is a cadastral subdivision of municipalities in the nations of Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Italian provinces of South Tyrol, Trentino, Gorizia, Trieste, and in Slovenia.A cadastral community records property ownership in a cadastre,...

n of Reitsam, Scharten, Sulzau and Wimm.

Overview

The settlement arose south of the Burg Hohenwerfen

Burg Hohenwerfen

Hohenwerfen Castle stands on a rock approximately 40 km south of the Austrian city of Salzburg. The castle is majestically surrounded by the Berchtesgaden Alps and the Tennengebirge mountain range...

, erected from 1075 at the behest of the Salzburg

Archbishopric of Salzburg

The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire, its territory roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg....

 archbishop Gebhard

Gebhard of Salzburg

Blessed Gebhard of Salzburg , also occasionally known as Gebhard of Helfenstein, was Archbishop of Salzburg from 1060 until his death. He was one of the fiercest opponents of King Henry IV during the Investiture Controversy....

 during the Investiture Controversy

Investiture Controversy

The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was the most significant conflict between Church and state in medieval Europe. In the 11th and 12th centuries, a series of Popes challenged the authority of European monarchies over control of appointments, or investitures, of church officials such...

 with Emperor Henry IV

Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry IV was King of the Romans from 1056 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 until his forced abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century...

. With the lands of the former archbishopric, Werfen finally fell to the Austrian Empire

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

 after the Vienna Congress

Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...

 in 1816.

Besides the medieval castle, the best-known attraction is the Eisriesenwelt

Eisriesenwelt

The Eisriesenwelt is a natural limestone ice cave located in Werfen, Austria, about 40 km south of Salzburg. The cave is inside the Hochkogel mountain in the Tennengebirge section of the Alps...

, the world's largest ice cave

Ice cave

The term ice cave refers to any type of natural cave that contains significant amounts of perennial ice...

. West of Werfen is the secluded Blühnbach Valley with the Baroque

Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 Blühnbach Castle, a former hunting lodge of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau

Wolf Dietrich Raitenau

Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau was Prince-Bishop of Salzburg from 1587 to 1612.-Biography:Raitenau was born at Hofen Castle in Lochau near Bregenz in Further Austria, the son of the Habsburg colonel Hans Werner von Raitenau and Helene von Hohenems, a niece of Pope Pius IV, sister of Markus Sitticus...

, which in 1908 was acquired by Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Franz Ferdinand was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia...

. After the archduke's assassination, the House of Habsburg sold the castle to the German Krupp

Krupp

The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...

 industrial dynasty, it is today a private property of Frederick R. Koch

Frederick R. Koch

Frederick Robinson Koch is an American collector and philanthropist, the eldest of the four sons born to American industrialist Fred C. Koch, founder of what is now Koch Industries, and Mary Robinson Koch...

.

A small portion of a picnic scene from The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music (film)

Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical...

was filmed on a hillside of the village of Werfen. Julie Andrews

Julie Andrews

Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...

 and crew filmed the opening shots of the "Do-Re-Mi

Do-Re-Mi

"Do-Re-Mi" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Within the story, it is used by Maria to teach the notes of the major musical scale to the Von Trapp children who learn to sing for the first time, even though their father has disallowed frivolity after...

" sequence with the Burg Hohenwerfen

Burg Hohenwerfen

Hohenwerfen Castle stands on a rock approximately 40 km south of the Austrian city of Salzburg. The castle is majestically surrounded by the Berchtesgaden Alps and the Tennengebirge mountain range...

 in the background. Werfen was also the location for some filming of Where Eagles Dare

Where Eagles Dare

Where Eagles Dare is a 1968 World War II action-adventure spy film starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure. It was directed by Brian G. Hutton and shot on location in Upper Austria and Bavaria....

.

Politics

Seats in the municipal council (Gemeinderat) as of 2006 elections:

• Social Democratic Party of Austria
  Social Democratic Party of Austria
  The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...
  
   (SPÖ): 11
• Austrian People's Party
  Austrian People's Party
  The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...
  
   (ÖVP): 6
• Freedom Party of Austria
  Freedom Party of Austria
  The Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...
  
  (FPÖ): 2