Ligist Castle
| Ligist Castle | ||
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 The castle ruins in March 2019 |
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| Alternative name (s): | Alt-Ligist, Lubgast | |
| Creation time : | Late 12th century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Ministeriale | |
| Construction: | Mostly stocked quarry stone masonry with corner blocks | |
| Place: | Ligist | |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 59 ′ 47 " N , 15 ° 12 ′ 22" E | |
| Height: | 435 m above sea level A. | |
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The Ligist castle ruins , also called Alt-Ligist and Lubgast , are the ruins of a hilltop castle on a foothill of the Wartenstein in the northeast of the market town of Ligist in Styria in Austria . The history of the castle goes back to the end of the 12th century, when it was probably built by Eppenstein service men to protect the trade route to Carinthia . The place Ligist, which was founded in 1464 by Emperor Friedrich III. got the market rights. From the first half of the 13th century, the Lubgasters sat at the castle before it passed to the lords of Saurau , who were related to them at the beginning of the 14th century . Under the Saurau, the castle was rebuilt during the Renaissance , before the sovereign debt increased in the 17th and 18th centuries . From 1783 the Saurau lived in the former Meierhof of the castle, which was converted into Schloss Ligist . The castle itself was already considered dilapidated and was further destroyed by the billeted troops of Napoleon Bonaparte . After the collapse of parts of the building, the castle was left to decay from 1820. After the Saurau became extinct, it came to the Counts of Goess before it came into the possession of the Sovereign Order of Malta in 1928 , to which it still belongs today. Between 1975 and 2011, the structure was maintained by the Ligist Castle Association, which was founded for this purpose.
The castle was built in three to four phases, with the oldest parts from the late 12th and early 13th centuries and the youngest from the 16th or 17th centuries. The 18.7 meter high keep , the oldest part of the castle, was redesigned during the Renaissance period, several vaulted ceilings were added. One was in the 16th century to keep Palas grown. In the outer bailey there were residential and workshop buildings for the subordinates.
Location
The castle is located in the northeast of the town of Ligist on a fall- back knoll that slopes steeply on three sides and is covered with grass . This is a southeastern branch of the Wartenstein and the Ligistberg and rises above the Ligisttal . The castle plateau is 40 meters above the center of Ligister. In the north the castle plateau from is ink stream and to the south by the market Bachl limited. The slopes of this ridge were partly artificially sloped , the castle access was from the northwest and was secured by a ditch . The old trade route ran through the valley from the Kainachtal via the Hebalm to Carinthia, on which mainly wine was transported.
history
Emperor Otto III. gave land to the margrave Adalbero von Eppenstein in the year 1000 in the area of today's municipality of Ligist . This area came partially to the Aribones , who donated the Ligister Forest to the Rein monastery in 1175 , and finally, through an inheritance, into the possession of the Lords of Wildon, who were related to the Eppensteiners . The castle was probably built towards the end of the 12th century to protect the surrounding area and the trade route with the transport of wine from the Kainachtal via the Aiblwirt to the Hebalm and then on to Carinthia. The builders could have been servants from the Eppensteiners who moved there from Dietenburg on the opposite Dietenberg .
The first documentary evidence of a lord of the castle dates back to 1222 and names one Ulrich de Lubgast, who had his residence on the "Veste Lubgast". The Lubgasters were a ministerial family and followers of the Lords of Wildon. In the 13th century the defense structure was expanded and expanded. Ulrich von Ligist, named in 1261, and his son or grandson of the same name sold property around Ligist to the Rein monastery in 1292 and 1353. Around 1300 the lords of Saurau , who were related to the Lubgastern, acquired ownership rights to the castle and the lordship, and around 1355 Starchant von Saurau received the "vest ze Lubgast" as free property . The Lubgaster family, which only died out shortly before 1478, moved their residence to the Hohenburg from around 1320 . The designation "vest" indicates a complete extension of the castle with a residential tower at that time. Between 1370 and 1387 an Albel of the Gugel is documented, which presumably served as castle keeper for the barons of Saurau.
In 1542 the Ligist dominion had more than 200 peasants as subjects. Under Franz von Saurau, from around the middle of the 16th century, the residents of Ligist and the associated rulers committed themselves to Protestantism ; the castle chapel was converted into a Protestant prayer house. The lord of the castle asked the then abbot of St. Lambrecht Monastery to wait until the son of the previously deceased Protestant pastor Christof Hayden had completed his studies before filling the vacant pastorate in Ligist. The son received the pastor's post in 1555 and after 1564 the St. Lambrecht Abbey sent a new Catholic pastor to Ligist, who was refused by Franz von Saurau. Shortly thereafter, Christof Stober, a new Catholic pastor came to Ligist, but he was unpopular with the population; thereupon Franz von Saurau arbitrarily appointed a Protestant pastor. From 1594, Franz von Sarau received several sovereign orders to remove the Protestant pastor, which he ignored. In 1599 the Abbot of St. Lambrecht intervened without success. In late autumn 1599, a reform commission accompanied by imperial troops finally forced Franz von Saurau to depose the pastor. When they intervened, the soldiers sometimes caused great damage to the castle and the residents returned to the Catholic Church. The old castle chapel was abandoned as a prayer house and the establishment of a new castle chapel consecrated to St. Mary began on the floor above. An inventory from 1620 lists a total of 22 rooms, vestibules and chambers in the castle and estimates from 1669 and 1725 mention an alchemist's room for the production of gold. Part of the castle and the armory burned down in 1621, but were renovated a short time later by Karl von Saurau . Under Karl's son Rudolf, the ruler's debts began to grow and the debt continued to rise sharply in the course of the 18th century. Nevertheless, the rule remained in the possession of the castle until the Saurau family died out in the second half of the 19th century. From 1783 the Saurau no longer lived there, but in the Meierhof, which they converted into Ligist Castle , on the lower part of the castle hill.
The custom of the robot meal, cultivated by the Saurau, can be traced back to the first quarter of the 19th century. It was held in the castle every year on June 29th, the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul , to commemorate the robot work carried out by the lords of the castle. The men of the rule were entertained and as far as known, the women were allowed to collect the leftover food. In the 18th century, 385 houses in 44 places as well as five offices and the bailiwicks over the churches Ligist , Modriach , Pack and Stallhofen belonged to the Ligist rule. The areas around today's Ligist as well as Modriach and Pack belonged to the advertising district of the castle.
It is known from 1797 that the castle buildings were already badly damaged and the castle chapel was completely derelict. When the French under Napoleon Bonaparte came to Styria in 1805, the Saurau Palace in Graz gave instructions that the French troops should be fed if they marched into Ligist. In December 1805 several French companies quartered themselves for a short time in Ligist and in the castle. When French troops billeted again in the already dilapidated castle in the winter of 1809/10, they continued to destroy the facility. The soldiers burned the rest of the interior, the floors and parts of the roof structure. In 1818 the castle was described as a ruin and when part of the structure collapsed in 1820, it was left to decay.
Via Anna Maria, the wife of Zeno von Saurau , the Counts of Goess inherited the castle along with the rulership in 1870 . From them the estate went to the Sovereign Order of Malta in 1928, which still owns it. The Ligist Castle Association began with the financial support of the Order of Malta and the community from 1975 with the repair of the castle complex. Between 1975 and 1985 extensive security work was carried out on the walls of the ruin, the keep was roofed over and the arch bridge over the moat was renewed. In the winter of 1998/99 the ruins were secured against further decay, the castle area was freed from debris and vegetation and the overgrown moat was exposed again. In the summer of 1999 a construction company secured the walls that were in danger of collapsing. From 2001 until the castle association was dissolved in 2011, further renovation and security work was carried out on the castle walls. The castle area has been used by the community since 2011 as the venue for Christmas at the castle , a Christmas market .
description
Ligist Castle was built in at least three clearly distinguishable phases, but a fourth construction phase is possible. In the first phase of construction in the late 12th or early 13th century, the stronghold with the keep was built, while the curtain wall was probably from the second phase of construction at the beginning of the 14th century. Presumably at the turn of the 15th to the 16th century, some residential buildings were built in the eastern part of the castle courtyard and the keep was redesigned. In the last construction phase in the 16th or 17th century, a cannon was built in the south-east of the complex.
Castle access
The castle ruins are accessed from the north-west via a stone arch bridge that leads over a moat and replaced the drawbridge at the end of the 17th century . The moat surrounding the northern, eastern and southern parts of the castle complex was largely filled with rubble and was dug up again by the local castle association. The former castle wall connects to the moat and is only partially recognizable. Most of the curtain wall in the north and south of the castle, built at the beginning of the 14th century, has also collapsed. It connects to the north wall of the tower house, but is separated from it by a wall joint. The feet of the wall on the northern circular wall line presumably date from the Baroque period .
Access to the castle was protected by a tower and a gatehouse until the end of the 18th century . In the gatehouse there was a Lady Chapel, which was established in 1636. The gate tower was described as badly dilapidated at the beginning of the 19th century. In the forecourt there were several small residential and farm buildings for the servants and a well.
Residential buildings
The small residential and farm buildings in the east of the courtyard behind the former gate tower, which today only survive as remains, are likely to date back to the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. In addition to broken stones , bricks were also used in the construction. In the south-east, the castle was protected by a semi-circular canon roundabout built in the 16th or 17th century, slightly lower in front of the stronghold , the remains of which can still be seen.
Hochburg
The stronghold in the eastern part of the complex is considered to be the oldest part of the castle. In the northern corner of the inner courtyard is the relatively well-preserved five-storey keep, which dates from the late 12th or early 13th century and also served as a residential tower . It consists mostly of stock-like quarry stone masonry with building edges reinforced by cuboids, the south side in the area of the ground floor and first upper storey also from simple cuboid masonry . The keep was rebuilt during the Renaissance .
Keep
The 12 meter long, 9.6 meter wide and 18.7 meter high keep rises 15.2 meters above today's castle level and was built in a single move. The strictly layered masonry consists of block-like hewn stones and has no leveling layers. The corner blocks are trimmed and colored a little darker than the rest of the masonry. The wall on the ground floor of the keep is 2.2 to 2.5 meters thick. On the outside, recesses for the beamed ceilings of the buildings attached to the keep and door openings to the palace , which are now walled up, were chiselled out in the Renaissance period . In the 20th century, a wide crack in the masonry of the upper floors was closed, the crumbling wall crown was bricked up and provided with a flat concrete rim, which serves as a support for the new roof. The roof of the keep of 1975, covered with fiber cement panels, was made by the castle association. Most of the originally medieval slit windows of the keep were probably enlarged to rectangular windows in the 15th or 16th century. During the renovation work in the 20th century, lintels that were not true to the original were built into some windows in openings that were not originally windows . The original high entrance to the keep was on its north side on the first floor.
The windowless cellar has a barrel vault made of bricks, presumably from the 20th century, and the two openings in the room are not medieval, but more recent. Originally, access was presumably made through a ceiling opening from the ground floor. The ground floor, which was previously inaccessible from the outside, has a barrel vault with stitch caps, which was drawn in during the Renaissance or a little earlier, and a window opening on the courtyard side with partly medieval drapery . The door in the east of the ground floor was broken through as a connection to the attached hall. There are still remnants of the medieval plaster at the approaches of the stitch caps. On the northern wall there are several armor holes about 5 centimeters wide , some of which still contain remains of the armor wood. Next to the window opening is a brick wall niche. The first floor originally had a strong Romanesque barrel vault, which was replaced during the Renaissance by a ceiling resting on consoles , of which only the beginnings can be seen. The original high entrance to the keep led to this floor. A Romanesque arched window with a funnel-shaped soffit on both sides on the east side of the room could indicate a former chapel. Two doors led into the attached hall, one of which was largely walled up again. From the first floor there was a 2.1 meter thick wall, around half a meter wide and steep staircase with around 25 steps leading to the second floor. It was buried and walled up during the remodeling of the keep. Plaster remnants have also been preserved at the entrance to the stairs. After the stairs were walled up, a tiled stove was placed at the entrance , the foundation of which can still be seen. A channel for a chimney was chiselled into the wall and closed by a thin wall of bricks. A small room in the wall, which was also accessible from the outside, presumably served to heat the fireplace from the outside.
On the second floor you can still see the exit of the walled staircase with a simple stone slab that serves as a lintel . A simple, medieval rectangular window was chiseled through the 2.2 meter thick wall. A medieval arched door was no longer used at the latest after the renovation in the Renaissance period, as the flat ceiling on the first floor lowered the floor of the second floor by more than 2 meters to increase the height of the room and the door behind a console disappeared. During the renovation, a ceiling resting on walled-in consoles made of yellow sandstone with wall templates made of bricks was drawn in, which was around 1.3 meters above the former medieval ceiling height. The ceiling is no longer preserved today and the consoles were partially torn out. The third upper floor originally had a beamed ceiling with walled-in beam heads. On the north side there are two walled up and partially destroyed simple rectangular windows made of coarse stone slabs, which taper to light slits on the outside. The window on the east side was created more recently when a crack in the masonry was closed. Also in the east is a walled-up arched portal, the original meaning of which is unclear. The door on the north side is from the more recent past and was probably built in place of an older door from the Renaissance period. As a result of the renovation, four coarse and chipped brackets are located on the southern wall about 2.2 meters above the current floor.
The palace built in the 16th century , which enclosed a small arcade courtyard , is attached to the northeastern part of the keep. Only remnants of the arcades and the stairwell in the courtyard have survived. On a copper engraving of the castle from 1681, a fireplace that no longer exists today can be seen, which could have belonged to the alchemist's kitchen mentioned in 1669 and 1715 .
legend
According to a legend, two farmers are said to have walked past the ruins of the castle on a June night in 1897. In front of the ruin there was a cherry tree with ripe fruits and the two men climbed the tree to eat some of the cherries. It struck midnight as they climbed and they were unable to pick a single one of the cherries. Suddenly, sparks and a violent rustling, a glowing rascal flew out of the castle ruins and over the cherry tree in the direction of Dietenberg . One of the men fell from the tree in shock while the other sat on the tree and grabbed the cherries. After this event, they were both able to eat the fruit.
literature
- Werner Murgg: Castle ruins in Styria . Ed .: Federal Monuments Office (= B . Band 2 ). Ferdinand Berger & Sons, 2009, ISSN 1993-1263 , p. 154-155 .
Web links
- Entry via Burg Ligist to Burgen-Austria
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernst Lasnik : Around the Holy Mountain . Verlag Styria, Graz 1982, ISBN 3-222-11303-3 , p. 545 .
- ↑ a b c d e Robert Baravalle: Castles and palaces of Styria . Leykam Buchverlagsgesellschaft mbH, Graz 1961, ISBN 3-7011-7323-0 , p. 557-558 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Werner Murgg: Castle ruins of Styria . Ed .: Federal Monuments Office (= B . Band 2 ). Ferdinand Berger & Sons, 2009, ISSN 1993-1263 , p. 154 .
- ^ A b Walter Brunner (Ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 1 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 424 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Entry about Ligist Castle in Burgen-Austria
- ^ A b c Franz Brauner: From the past of Ligist. In: Sagen.at. Retrieved February 7, 2019 .
- ^ Walter Brunner (ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 2 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 30 .
- ^ Walter Brunner (ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 1 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 79 .
- ^ Walter Brunner (ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 1 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 80 .
- ↑ a b Ernst Lasnik : Around the Holy Mountain . Verlag Styria, Graz 1982, ISBN 3-222-11303-3 , p. 550-552 .
- ^ Walter Brunner (ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 1 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 123 .
- ↑ a b Ernst Lasnik : Around the Holy Mountain . Verlag Styria, Graz 1982, ISBN 3-222-11303-3 , p. 552-554 .
- ^ Dissolution of the Ligist Castle Association on December 31, 2011 . In: Marktgemeinde Ligist (Hrsg.): Ligister news . No. 236/96 . Ligist 2011, p. 42 ( ligist.at [PDF]).
- ↑ a b c d Martin Aigner: The residential tower of Ligist. In: Burgseite.com. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Federal Monuments Office (ed.): Dehio Steiermark (excluding Graz) . 2nd Edition. Berger, Horn / Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-85028-439-5 , p. 271-272 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Morscher: The glowing scraper. In: Sagen.at. Retrieved September 12, 2015 .
