Berchtesgaden

Berchtesgaden was an ecclesiastical state in an Alpine valley south of Salzburg. In 1337 its Augustinian house was headed by Provost Henry IV.

The provost became an imperial prince in 1380. In 1611 Salzburg troops invaded Berchtesgaden, but Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria drove them out; from 1612 the provostry was held in personal union by Cologne's prince-archbishops. Secularised in 1802 and 1803, it passed to Austria after the 1805 Peace of Pressburg and to Bavaria in 1810.