Burghausen

Burghausen stands on the Salzach beneath a long castle stretching along the ridge above the town. From 1255 it was a second residence of the dukes of Lower Bavaria, and it grew wealthy from salt brought downriver from Hallein and transferred to land transport. Its position as a ducal residence and trading centre gave the town a prominence reflected in the expansion of its castle.

Under the wealthy dukes Heinrich XVI, Ludwig IX and Georg, Burghausen flourished as the second capital of Bavaria-Landshut. After the Landshut War of Succession it became an administrative centre of reunited Bavaria in 1505. The ducal salt monopoly established in 1594 deprived the town of an important source of income, and the wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries brought further losses.