UNTERSBERG Cable Car Ride, Salzburg, Austria | Untersberg Mythen

The Untersberg is the northernmost massif of the Berchtesgaden Alps, a prominent spur straddling the border between Berchtesgaden, Germany and Salzburg, Austria. The highest peak of the table-top mountain is the Berchtesgaden Hochthron at 1,973 metres (6,473 ft).

The landmark gained international fame as the "distinctive, lopsided peak" featured at the beginning and end of the 1965 movie The Sound of Music,although the filming was done on the German side, not the Austrian side. It was where Julie Andrews sang The Hills Are Alive at the opening scene and where the family climbed the mountain on their escape to Switzerland at the end of the film.

The mountain also lends its name to an 1829 opera, Der Untersberg, by Johann Nepomuk von Poißl (1783–1865).

First mentioned as Vndarnsperch ("Noon Mountain") in a 1306 deed issued by the Salzburg archbishops, the prominent spur has been the subject of numerous myths and legends. According to a popular king asleep in mountain legend, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa shall remain asleep inside Mt. Untersberg until his resurrection. His beard is said to be growing longer and longer around a round table and to have grown round two times. Myth says that when the beard has grown three times around the table the end of the world has come. When Frederick leaves the mountain, there will be no further Holy Roman Emperor and the last great battle of humankind will be fought at the pear tree on the Walserfeld, a pasture near Wals, west of Salzburg. There is a similar legend for the Kyffhäuser Mountain in Thuringia and Trifels Castle.

Other legends say that it is Charlemagne waiting inside the Untersberg,[4] taken care of by the Untersberger Mandln, small dwarf-like creatures. Every hundred years he awakes and when he sees the ravens (actually choughs) still flying around the Untersberg he sleeps for another century. Indeed, Charlemagne had held a synod in Salzburg in 803 AD, where he met with Bishop Arno. The Alpine tradition of the Untersberg Wild Hunt (Perchten) has recently been revived. There are also several legends about the cave system below the mountain.

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