Freilassing

Freilassing (), until 1923 Salzburghofen is a town of some 16,000 inhabitants in the southeastern corner of Bavaria, Germany. It belongs to the "Regierungsbezirk" Oberbayern and the "Landkreis" (County) of Berchtesgadener Land. Located very close to the German-Austrian border, Freilassing can be seen as the biggest satellite of Salzburg, the centre of which is eight kilometres (five miles) away, on the other side of the border.

==History== As proved by excavations, the area was already settled in the Neolithic times. Celts and later Romans established permanent settlements. First mentioned in 885 in a Carolingian document, the peasant village named Salzburghofen was given to the archbishop of Salzburg by King Louis IV in 908. After the Napoleonic Wars in 1816, the border between Bavaria and Austria was drawn along the rivers Saalach and Salzach, and Salzburghofen became part of Bavaria. The railway line connecting Munich and Salzburg (and further on to Vienna) changed the appearance of the village significantly. First, the railway company paid good prices for the land of the farmers. Second, many jobs were created, more than 1,000 in the 1970s.