The Archbishopric of Salzburg is a Prince-Bishopric and state of the Holy Roman Empire.

The diocese arises from St Peter's Abbey, founded in the German stem duchy of Bavaria about 696 by Saint Rupert at the former Roman city of Iuvavum (Salzburg).In the thirteenth century it receives Imperial immediacy and independency from Bavaria, and remains an ecclesiastical state until its secularization to the short-lived Electorate of Salzburg in 1803.

The Prince-Archbishops never obtained electoral dignity; actually of the five Prince-archbishoprics of the Holy Roman Empire (with Mainz, Cologne and Trier) Magdeburg and Salzburg got nothing from the Golden Bull of 1356.

The last Prince-Archbishop exercising secular authority is Count Hieronymus von Colloredo, an early patron of Salzburg native Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.