Güssing Castle
| Güssing Castle | ||
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 Güssing Castle from the southwest (2013) |
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| Creation time : | 1157 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Received or received substantial parts | |
| Standing position : | Count | |
| Place: | Gussing | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 3 '24.5 " N , 16 ° 19' 22.5" E | |
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The Güssing Castle perched on a steep porphyry cone in Stremtal at Güssing in Burgenland . Its construction in the year 1157 it is the oldest castle in Burgenland and a prominent landmark in the region. In addition, it gained historical importance in 1459 when dissatisfied magnates gathered there and Emperor Friedrich III. elected as King of Hungary, who thus became the opponent of the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus .
In the shadow of the castle, a suburbium arose , which lay around the castle rock with a lenticular hill and was called civitas in 1427 and civitas et suburbium in 1459 . The present-day city of Güssing developed from him.
history
The castle was first mentioned in a document when the Hungarian King Géza II. Awarded the mountain "Quizun" and its surroundings to Count Wolfer from the Styrian Wildon in 1157 . In the same year he built a wooden weir system on the volcanic cone next to a Benedictine monastery , which is to be regarded as the predecessor of today's castle.
King Béla III. had the fortifications and the monastery confiscated and converted into a stone castle in the 12th century. In 1198 the castle is mentioned in a deed of donation, in which it is referred to as novum castrum . During the 13th century, the castle was expanded several times by the owners Demetrius von Csak and Moritz Pok. In addition to the castles in Wieselburg and Ödenburg , as well as Lockenhaus and those in Eisenburg , it was part of the castle belt along the western border of Hungary. Güssing Castle was one of the few Hungarian castles that could not be captured during the Tartar storm in 1241/42. In 1273 the troops of Ottokar of Bohemia had to end a siege of the castle without success.
In 1270 the complex came from royal possession to the Güssing Counts ( Lords of Güns ), who at times owned all of the castles in the area. Although the noble family Heder aspired to an independent principality and thus was in constant dispute with the Hungarian royal family, some members made it to the highest offices in the kingdom. For example, Count Heinrich (1254–1274), ludex Curiae , Palatine and Banus , at times directed the fortunes of Hungary. In 1285 the Güssing Count Ivan (Johann I von Heder), also called Ivan the Red Knight, dared a campaign against Duke Albrecht I of Austria and was able to inflict a serious defeat on him at Bernstein in 1289 . The Styrian rhyming chronicle of Ottokar from the Gaal reports, however, of a subsequent victory by Duke Albrecht over Count Ivan. The Duke's trustee, Berthold von Emmerberg, was able to conquer Güssing and held it as a fief for some time. In 1327 the Güssing counts were finally subjugated and lost in importance.
After several changes of ownership, Nikolaus Ujlaky, a representative of the Habsburg party, seized the castle. Under his chairmanship, the magnates who were dissatisfied with Matthias Corvinus gathered at Güssing Castle in 1459 and elected Friedrich III. to the king of Hungary. Nikolaus Ujlaky later sided with Matthias Corvinus.
Nicholas' son Lorenz behaved so challengingly towards King Vladislav II that the castle, which was considered impregnable, was besieged and conquered by troops of the Roman-German King Maximilian I in 1490 .
After Lorenz died childless in 1522, the facility fell back to the Hungarian Crown. King Ludwig II then transferred it to the Hungarian nobleman Franz Batthyány and his nephew Christoph as a reward for defeating a Turkish army at Jajce . Their family had the castle expanded into a spacious fortress in the 16th and 17th centuries because of the impending danger from the east .
With the loss of its strategic importance - the delivery of weapons began in 1775 - the castle was abandoned to decay in the 18th century , as the roof tax at that time made maintenance unaffordable for the owner.
Well aware of the importance of the castle, including the monastery and family crypt for the Batthyány family and the region of the country, Prince Philipp Batthyány-Strattmann established a foundation in 1870 to preserve Güssing Castle and the monastery.
Since the foundation had lost most of its capital in the inflationary years after the First World War, a way had to be found to ensure that the castle and monastery could be preserved for future generations.
For this reason, the Province of Burgenland / the public sector was asked to co-manage the Prince Batthyány Foundation in the 1980s by the Batthyány family, and extensive renovation and maintenance measures were made possible and implemented.
The first conservation measures took place as early as 1957. Further, extensive restoration and reconstruction work followed in the period from 1982 to 2000, so that Güssing Castle is as it was 200 years ago.
The castle continues to be run by the Weiland Prince Philipp Batthyány-Strattmann's foundation. Its curator is the respective head of the family - currently the 10th Prince, Ladislaus Edmund Batthyány-Strattmann, who runs the foundation with the administrator of the Province of Burgenland.
The castle today
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The access is to a fortified gateway on the north side of the plant bailey . Their courtyard is surrounded by the remains of the former fortress.
A wide flight of stairs leads to the inner courtyard of the stronghold . The buildings surrounding the inner courtyard usually have three storeys, of which the basement was partially carved directly out of the rock.
Between the living room and the chapel tract from the 15th century, the powerful, nor of partially rises Romanesque originating time keep .
Today, 20 rooms in the stronghold are home to a castle museum with around 5000 exhibits. You can see the ancestral gallery and the family museum of the Batthyány family, old weapons, sculptures and handicrafts as well as paintings from the Renaissance and Baroque periods , including two portraits by Lucas Cranach the Elder .
A very special attraction is the ascent to the walkable bell tower , from which a panoramic view of the Pannonian plain is possible.
Today, theater performances, concerts and readings take place on the castle grounds. Some rooms can also be rented for private events. For a short time it has also been possible to get married in the castle in a civil ceremony and in the castle chapel.
The Batthyány family meets every year at the end of June for a family day at their ancestral castle. In recent years, some members of the Batthyánys family have also been baptized in the castle chapel.
Since 1994, the Güssing Castle Games have been held every summer in the courtyard, which tie in with the cultural tradition of the Batthyánys.
One of the gates to the castle
Inner courtyard of the stronghold
Castle view of fish ponds
Castle view to the north
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literature
- Rene Riegler: Castles, palaces and ruins in Burgenland . Volume 2, Ternitz 1998, pp. 33-41.
- Foundation of the Weiland Prince Philipp Batthyány (ed.): The castle Güssing . Gussing 1993.
Web links
- Website of Güssing Castle
- Entry on Güssing Castle in the Austria Forum (in the Heimatlexikon)
- Entry via Burg Güssing to Burgen-Austria
- Illustration by Lukas Schnitzer from 1665: Illustration of the Vöstung Giszing in Hungary 1665 ( digitized version )