Its origins date back to about 700, when the adjacent
St. Peter's Abbey (
Stift St. Peter) was established by Saint
Rupert of Salzburg. The abbey's cemetery, probably at the site of an even earlier burial place, was first mentioned in an 1139 deed, the oldest tombstone dates to 1288.
Catacombs Carved into the rock of the Festungsberg are
catacombs that may stem from the Early Christian days of
Severinus of Noricum during the
Migration Period. They include two chapels: The
Maximuskapelle and the
Gertraudenkapelle, consecrated in 1178 under the Salzburg Archbishop
Conrad of Wittelsbach and dedicated to the assassinated Archbishop
Thomas Becket of Canterbury. A second chapel, The
Margarethenkapelle (Margaret Chapel), rebuilt in 1491, occupies a site in the center of the cemetery. == Notable burials ==