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The borders of the modern Salzburger Land ( www.sagma.co.at/guide ) roughly correspond to the area ruled by the prince-archbishops of Salzburg (although the archbishopric was a typically feudal entity, comprising motley holdings dotted throughout central Austria and southern Germany), up until the Principality's incorporation into Austria in 1816. The River Salzach , which rises in the lofty heights of the Hohe Tauern range before flowing towards Salzburg, eventually joining the River Inn in Upper Austria, gives the area a measure of geographical cohesion; and it's the main transport routes along the Salzach Valley that link the provincial capital, Salzburg , with much of its hinterland. As a tourist destination, the Salzburger Land offers a good mixture of both the urban and the alpine, with its splendid Baroque capital proving the main focus for many visitors. Music is an important draw in a city that was the birthplace of Mozart , and the annual Salzburg Festival , held in July and August, is a world-renowned feast of classical music and theatre. South of Salzburg, the narrow confines of the Salzach Valley and a sequence of exhilarating mountainscapes provide a dramatic setting for historic towns like Hallein and Werfen , while further south, Radstadt, St Johann im Pongau, Badgastein and Zell am See serve as the best bases from which to explore the countryside - most notably the lofty heights of the Hohe Tauern range. In winter , snow sports take hold in the south of the province, with Radstadt, St Johann im Pongau, Badgastein and the package resort of Saalbach-Hinterglemm providing a wealth of white slopes. Many of the Land's winter sports centres make equally good hiking bases in summer . A key destination for hikers is the Hohe Tauern National Park, which preserves the unspoilt highland areas above the towns of Badgastein and Zell am See. The most versatile area is around Zell am See, where a glacier above the neighbouring settlement of Kaprun provides year-round skiing and snowboarding. In the past, the Salzburger Land was divided into districts known as Gaue ( Gau in the singular): the Flachgau north of Salzburg, the Tennengau to the south, the Pongau in the middle Salzach Valley, the Lungau in the far southeast, and the Pinzgau, which runs from Zell am See westwards along the Upper Salzach Valley. Each developed its own folkloric traditions, and regional differences still provide the people who live here with an important badge of regional identity. This is partly expressed in several surviving folk festivals , which include the Pongauer Perchtenlauf , when costumed figures rampage through the streets of one of four Pongau towns, Krampus festivities in Zell am See, and the Samsonumzug in the Lungau town of Tamsweg, in which an effigy of Samson is paraded through the streets on important summer feast days.
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