Altgrafenstein Castle
| Altgrafenstein Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
| Alternative name (s): | Lerchenau Castle, Old Castle | |
| Creation time : | around 1100 to 1150 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Ministeriale | |
| Place: | Grafenstein | |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 36 '7 " N , 14 ° 27' 58" E | |
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The burgruine grafenstein even castle Lerchenau mentioned, which is ruin of a medieval hilltop castle south of Grafstein in District Klagenfurt-Land in Carinthia . It was the ancestral seat of the Grafenstein family and thus the core of the later local development of Grafenstein.
location
The crumbled Romanesque-type complex is located on the northern slope of the Skarbins , the easternmost branch of the Sattnitz , south of the eponymous village of Grafenstein in the Klagenfurt Basin . The ruin is located on a rock cone about 20 m high and can only be reached from one side.
history
The first documented mention of Altgrafenstein Castle dates back to 1158. On June 20 of this year, Bishop Roman I. von Gurk enfeoffed the Carinthian provincial duke, Heinrich V, of the Spanheimer family, with the property and the Gravindorf farm . In the feudal deed, the castle belonging to the place appears as castrum gravenstaine . However, since it had no strategic importance, Heinrich filled it with vassals: first with Heinrich von Truchsen , who was later succeeded by his sons Gottfried and Adalbert / Albert as burgraves.
In the course of the 12th century, the Grafenstein family emerged from the Trixen counts, who named themselves after their ancestral castle. The most important descendants of this line were Heinrich von Grafenstein, who took part in a tournament in St. Veit in 1227 and was defeated there by the minstrel Ulrich von Liechtenstein , and Rudolf von Grafenstein, whose seal was raised to the municipal coat of arms in 1954. It shows a griffin or wolf rising from a five-pointed crown.
After the rapid rise of the hamlet belonging to the castle to the forum Gravenstein and the extinction of the Counts von Grafenstein, the castle was pledged in the 14th century, which now neither met defensive requirements nor to maintain its position as the economic and judicial center of the place was able to. So it changed hands in quick succession: in 1330 it went to Hans Liebenberg, in 1351 to the Kraiger family.
The great earthquake of 1348, in which the Dobratsch massif collapsed, may also have meant the end of the castle, because after 1348 it is only referred to as the castle stables in the documents.
In the course of the following three centuries the castle completely lost its importance and fell into such disrepair that maintaining its character as a noble seat and military bastion was out of the question. After many changes of ownership, on July 30, 1629, Johann Andreas von Rosenberg acquired the Grafenstein lordship, including the ruins, which were now to be forgotten and became an object of legend; The legendary Lerchenau Castle was subsequently transformed from the small count castle.
investment
The Altgrafenstein castle ruins can be reached via the Skarbin supply route. On the steep rock cone, only accessible from the north, traces of masonry and the Romanesque floor plan can still be seen. In the rock there are numerous natural, but apparently artificially expanded caves and niches in which remains of walls can also be seen. From the rock itself, the viewer has an interesting view over the entire Klagenfurt basin.
The Carinthian castle researcher Franz Xaver Kohla carried out excavations in the 1920s and found parts of a ring wall surrounding the rock cone. His discoveries have been buried over the years and have been overgrown ever since.
literature
- Dehio Handbook Carinthia. Anton Schroll, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-7031-0712-X , p. 237.