Frauenburg castle ruins (Unzmarkt-Frauenburg)

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View of the ruins of Frauenburg from the southeast

The castle ruin Frauenburg is an Austrian spur castle in the Murtal above the Styrian market town of Unzmarkt-Frauenburg .

The stone hilltop castle was built in the 13th century by the minstrel Ulrich von Liechtenstein and is considered his favorite place to stay. After his family line died out in the 15th century, the lords of Stubenberg , who were related by marriage , inherited the castle and rule of Frauenburg. They expanded the complex with buildings in the Gothic style , but had to sell them to the Counts of Schwarzenberg in 1666 due to financial problems . After this family had moved the administrative seat of the rule to Murau , the unused castle complex began to fall into disrepair. A fire in 1861 did the rest and left the castle to ruin .

Restoration work began a century later , during which the remains of the castle were secured and rebuilt. Today the complex is a listed building and is still privately owned by the Schwarzenberg family. Nevertheless, it is open to visitors and is freely accessible all year round.

history

The Frauenburg on an engraving by Matthäus Merian , 1679
Unzmarkt and the Frauenburg around 1820, lithograph by J. F. Kaiser

The Frauenburg was first mentioned around 1260, but at that time it had existed for a long time. Ulrich von Liechtenstein inherited what was probably a wooden predecessor complex from his father Dietmar, who lived in Judenburg , and probably had it replaced by a stone residential tower in the 1230s . At the castle , the minstrel wrote his women's service , an epic that included almost 15,000  verses and 57 songs . It was probably also Ulrich von Liechtenstein who named the complex Frauenburg. In August 1248 he was imprisoned there by his tenant Pilgrim von Katsch and his servant Weinholt and held there for over a year. He was only released again when Count Meinhard von Görz paid a ransom . In 1268 or 1269 he lost the castle to the Bohemian king Ottokar , but later got it back undamaged. After Ulrich's death in 1275, his son Otto succeeded him as lord of the castle.

Around the year 1300, two massive pillars were placed in front of the residential tower , which were apparently later connected by brick arches. Around the same time, a residential building was built northeast of the tower, which was mentioned in a contract from 1385 as the "new floor". In this contract, Ulrich von Liechtenstein's great-grandson Andreas and Hans divided the castle among themselves. This means that it is known which buildings the facility consisted of at that time. Among other things, the residential tower, a stables , the curtain wall , a fountain , a cemetery, gardens and several gateways that secured the entrance from the valley to the castle are mentioned. Rudolf IV of Liechtenstein had the castle expanded in the 15th century. With the childless death of his relative Leonhard von Liechtenstein, the male line of the family died out. Therefore, the castle and the associated lordship came in 1437 to Johann III, who was related by marriage to the Liechtenstein family. from Stubenberg. His descendants expanded the Romanesque complex in the 15th and 16th centuries in the Gothic style and fortified it with a forecourt . However, they did not live in the castle themselves, but had caretakers manage it. In 1597 the mathematician Johannes Kepler stayed at the Frauenburg as a guest of Andreas (also Andrä) von Stubenberg.

Because of high debts, the Stubenbergs had to sell parts of the Frauenberg estate since 1654. In 1666 the rest of the castle, including the castle, was sold to Count Johann Adolf von Schwarzenberg, whose family is still the owner today. At the beginning of the 19th century, she moved the rulership to Obermurau Castle . Then the gradual decline of the Frauenburg began. In 1861 a fire destroyed some parts of the defense system, but important parts, such as the medieval residential tower, were preserved. In 1962 the high west wall collapsed and the tower was now in danger of falling into disrepair. On the initiative of the Styrian Castle Association , extensive restoration work began shortly afterwards on the entire complex, in the course of which the collapsed western wall was rebuilt in concrete . Today the castle ruins are freely accessible and also serves as the venue for an annual castle festival.

description

location

The ruin is located on an almost isolated hill above Unzmarkt-Frauenburg, about 17 kilometers west of Judenburg . The Burgplatz makes use of the slope edge of a high valley, which slopes steeply to the Murtal on the southeast side. On the southwest side, the rock was cut down vertically so that it was also inaccessible from the valley there. Today the access is via Burgstrasse, which comes from Unzbach and runs through Frauenburg, first from the east and finally after a swivel from the north to the castle. There used to be a more direct route from the south-east, which was secured by several gateways. Today it has been replaced by a covered wooden staircase that also runs through something else. The castle stood in a strategically important place, where the long-distance route from Austria to Italy passed and the interests of Carinthia , Salzburg and Styria collided.

architecture

Floor plan of the Frauenburg from 1902

The built-up castle area extends over several terraces that slope from south to north and occupy a total length of around 200 meters. The remains of the wall consist of small-scale quarry stone masonry without any pronounced layering. The corners are accentuated by long corner cuboids made of bright, colored material.

Jakobskirche

On the lowest terrace of the area stands the church of St. Jakob, also called Jakobskirche, which was built around 1250 and later built over in baroque style . It has the status of a parish church and is consecrated to St. James the Elder . It was included in the fortification of the castle as early as the 14th century. Remains of the previous Romanesque building still exist under the choir . A Roman stone found in 1870 is now walled up in the church. Above barely legible Roman letters it shows the inscription “hie leit ulrich dises houses rehtter erbe”, which is why historians erroneously interpreted it as the tombstone of Ulrich von Liechtenstein. Today it is clear, however, that the stone was intended for the grave of Ulrich's grandson of the same name. Next to the church there is an old schoolhouse and the former parish homestead.

Residential tower

Tower of the Frauenburg with adjoining ruins, view from the east
View from the north

At the highest point of the castle rock, and thus at its southern end, is the residential tower (also called Palas ) from the 13th century. Its two meter thick walls are four storeys high and closed off by a crenellated crown . Behind this, however, there was never a battlement , but the battlements were primarily intended to give the building a defensive appearance. The tower is covered by a pent roof sloping towards the valley , which was thus well protected from bombardment from the mountain side. The building has a trapezoidal floor plan with a clear length of 16 meters and a width between six and ten meters. It thus had a usable area of ​​around 700 m² and in the 13th century was one of the largest residential towers in Austria. The first and second floors were used for residential purposes, which can be seen on the south-western long side through four Romanesque, coupled windows. Three of them still have their middle pillar . Each of these floors used to have three rooms. On the first floor, in addition to an entrance area, this was a large hall with a fireplace and a smaller room, separated by a wooden wall, which possibly served as a kitchen. The room layout of the second floor was similar to that of the first, but there was no entrance area, but a chapel in the north corner and an additional toilet.

The first floor of the residential tower was originally only illuminated by two narrow slits of light. It probably served as a cellar and storage room and could only be reached from the first floor above. The current entrance from the castle courtyard was broken out later, just as the light slots were expanded to form rectangular windows. The original access was via a high entrance on the first floor, which is 8.5 meters above today's courtyard level. The opening is 2.3 meters high and 1.6 meters wide. As was usual in the Middle Ages, it was probably reached via a wooden staircase. The third floor had three arched windows on the valley side and a lancet window to the courtyard. Like all the other floors, its north-west side facing the mountain was windowless. The basement of the residential tower is an elongated room with a barrel vault , which is accessed at ground level from the castle courtyard via a five-meter-long corridor carved into the rock.

A three-storey extension is in front of the residential tower on the north side facing the courtyard. At first it consisted of only two thick pillars, which were later connected to each other by brick bridges and arches. In addition, it received a wooden balcony , which was accessible via a brick, ramp-like ascent and led to the originally high entrance on the first floor. The room on the second floor is plastered and connected to the residential tower via a large arched opening. It may have served as the apse of the castle chapel.

More castle buildings

Remains of the north gate

To the northeast, the residential tower is joined by the remains of a residential building from the 14th century. The longitudinal wall on its south-east side is partly still in full height. There used to be a dungeon on its first floor . A Gothic annex was added to the southeast side (perhaps later) over the entire length. On the north side of these two buildings are the remains of the second castle chapel, built in 1434, whose Gothic ribbed vault is partially preserved.

The high circular wall of the complex begins at the northwest corner of the residential tower, the battlements of which are still preserved. From the inside, other buildings leaned against it, including a square stair tower with a spiral staircase inside. Directly to the north of this was a gate that probably served as access to a defensive tower built in front of it to coat the wall. Another gate is at the northern tip of the castle. Its arched passage is protected by a walled forecourt and two machicolations . In addition to these two gates, there used to be two more within the castle area.

The remains of a roundabout on the east side still bear witness to the castle's former defenses. Today nothing can be seen of the former cistern in the courtyard.

literature

  • Wilfried Bahnmüller: Castles and palaces. Styria & Burgenland. Residenz, St. Pölten et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-7017-3077-3 , pp. 127–129.
  • Robert Baravalle: Castles and palaces of Styria. Stiasny, Graz 1961, page 252 ff.
  • Felix Halmer, Norbert Grabherr, Wilfried Keplinger, Oswald Graf Trapp, Meinrad Tiefenthaler, Gotbert Moro, Herwig Ebner, Josef Bichler: Castles and palaces in Austria. Based on old templates (= castles, palaces, mansions. Volume 27). 2nd Edition. Weidlich, Frankfurt a. M. 1983, ISBN 3-8035-1203-4 , pp. 121-123.
  • Johannes Koren, Franz Attems: Palaces and fortresses of Styria. Pinguin, Innsbruck 1986, ISBN 3-7016-2225-6 , pp. 126-127.
  • Laurin Luchner: Castles in Austria. Second volume. Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-04508-1 , p. 146.
  • Werner Murgg: Burgruinen der Steiermark (= Fund reports from Austria. Materialhefte. Series B. Volume 2). Verlag Ferdinand Berger & Sons, Horn 2009, pp. 76-77.
  • Otto Piper : Austrian castles. Volume 1. Alfred Hölder, Vienna 1902, pp. 106–119 ( digitized version ).
  • Gerhard Stenzel: Austria's castles. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-218-00493-4 , pp. 186-188.
  • Gerhard Stenzel: From castle to castle in Austria. 2nd Edition. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1973, pp. 102-105.

Web links

Commons : Burgruine Frauenburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Stenzel: Austria's castles. 1989, p. 186.
  2. ↑ Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.): Styria - immovable and archaeological monuments under monument protection. Status: January 23, 2019 ( PDF ; 669 kB).
  3. ↑ a b Information according to the information board on site
  4. ^ A b Gerhard Stenzel: From castle to castle in Austria. 1973, p. 103.
  5. ↑ a b c Laurin Luchner: Castles in Austria. Second volume. Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. 1983, p. 146.
  6. ↑ a b c d August Landgraf: The Romanesque secular buildings on the castles and ruins of Austria and Old Bavaria. In: Castles and Palaces . Journal for Castle Research and Monument Preservation. Volume 9, No. 1, 1968, ISSN  0007-6201 , p. 4.
  7. ^ Otto Piper: Austrian castles. Volume 1. 1902, p. 111.
  8. ↑ a b c Johannes Koren, Franz Attems: Palaces and castles of Styria. 1986, p. 127.
  9. ^ Otto Piper: Austrian castles. 1902, p. 119.
  10. ↑ Felix Halmer et al. a .: Castles and palaces in Austria. According to old templates. 1983, p. 122.
  11. ^ Otto Piper: Austrian castles. 1902, p. 116.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g Detailed description of the Frauenburg residential tower on burgseite.com , accessed on January 18, 2020.
  13. ^ Otto Piper: Austrian castles. 1902, p. 118.
  14. ^ Wilfried Bahnmüller: Castles and palaces. Styria & Burgenland. 2008, p. 129.
  15. ↑ August Landgraf: The Romanesque secular buildings on the castles and ruins of Austria and Old Bavaria. In: Castles and Palaces. Journal for Castle Research and Monument Preservation. Volume 9, No. 1, 1968, ISSN  0007-6201 , p. 3.
  16. ^ Gerhard Stenzel: From castle to castle in Austria. 1973, p. 104.
  17. ^ Otto Piper: Austrian castles. 1902, p. 110.
  18. ↑ a b Otto Piper: Austrian castles. 1902, p. 112.
  19. ↑ a b Otto Piper: Austrian castles. 1902, p. 113.
  20. ^ Otto Piper: Austrian castles. 1902, p. 107.

Coordinates: 47 ° 12 ′ 17.7 ″  N , 14 ° 26 ′ 12.7 ″  E