007 Book location: Fortress of Kufstein / On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963), Young Bond: By Royal Command (2008)

Bond books: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963), Young Bond: By Royal Command (2008)

Places and locations in the books: Kufstein Castle (Festung Kufstein), Festung 2, Kufstein, Austria

What happens here in the books: Bond are Tracy are on their way to Kufstein, but they never get there (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), Bond visits twice the fortress (Young Bond: By Royal Command)

Visited by 007 Travelers: July 2024

They didn’t talk much. Tracy kept at about eighty and there was wind-roar. That was the trouble about open cars. Bond glanced at his watch. 11.45. They would get to Kufstein at about one. There was a splendid Gasthaus up the winding streets towards the great castle. Here was a tiny lane of pleasure, full of the heart-plucking whine of zither music and the gentle melancholy of Tyrolean yodellers. It was here that the German tourist traditionally stopped after his day’s outing into cheap Austria, just outside the German frontier, for a last giant meal of Austrian food and wine. Bond put his mouth up close to Tracy’s ear and told her about it and about the other attraction at Kufstein–the most imaginative war memorial, for the 1914-18 war, ever devised. Punctually at midday every day, the windows of the castle are thrown open and a voluntary is played on the great organ inside. It can be heard for kilometres down the valley between the giant mountain ranges for which Kufstein provides the gateway. ‘But we shall miss it. It’s coming up for twelve now.’

‘Never mind,’ said Tracy, ‘I’ll make do with the zithers while you guzzle your beer and schnapps.’ She turned in to the right-hand fork leading to the underpass for Kufstein, and they were at once through Rosenheim and the great white peaks were immediately ahead.

Ian Fleming: “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1963)

“Twice they went to visit the ancient white-walled fortress in the centre of Kufstein, near the German border, where every day at twelve a great organ in one of its towers played a short concert as a memorial to those who had died in the Great War – the sound echoed for miles down the valleys.”

Charlie Higson: “Young Bond: By Royal Command” (2008)

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