Petersberg Castle
| Petersberg Castle | ||
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 Petersberg castle ruins |
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| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Place: | Friesach | |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 57 '5 " N , 14 ° 24' 9" E | |
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The ruins of the Petersberg Castle are the ruins of a hilltop castle on the mountain range of the same name above the town of Friesach . The city of Friesach is located on the Metnitz in the state of Carinthia in Austria .
history
The place was first mentioned in a document in 860, when King Ludwig the German gave a court in Friesach to Archbishop Adalwin of Salzburg.
In the investiture controversy, the Archbishop of Salzburg, Gebhard , took the side of Pope Gregory VII. Around 1076 he had a castle built on the Petersberg near Friesach to block King Heinrich IV from crossing the Alpine passes.
While the area around the castle was temporarily owned by the bishops of Gurk and the dukes of Carinthia , the castle probably always remained in the possession of Salzburg. In 1123/1124 the castle was successfully defended against the Carinthian Duke Engelbert II. Von Spanheim .
In 1124 the place Friesach came back into the possession of Salzburg. The Archbishop Konrad von Abensberg had the castle extended generously. The still existing keep with the Rupert chapel was built around 1140. The castle became a secondary residence of the archbishops of Salzburg and served as a place of refuge during military conflicts. In 1149, King Konrad III stayed. after his retirement from the Second Crusade at the castle. Emperor Friedrich I. Barbarossa had the castle occupied in 1170 after Archbishop Adalbert III. of Bohemia party for Pope Alexander III. had seized. In 1192 King Richard I the Lionheart came through Friesach on his flight to England.
In the battle between the Salzburg Archbishop Rudolf von Hoheneck and Duke Albrecht I of Austria , the castle was successfully defended against ducal troops in 1292.
In connection with the disputes between Emperor Friedrich III. and the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus , the castle was occupied by Hungarian troops from 1479 to 1490. From 1495 onwards, Archbishop of Salzburg, Leonhard von Keutschach, had the castle modernized and gave it and the city fortifications their current appearance.
No longer of military importance, the complex was largely destroyed by fire in 1673. It was subsequently abandoned and fell into disrepair.
investment
The complex is dominated today by the six-storey keep, which was built around 1200 and, after partial decay, was restored from the end of the 19th century. In it was a monumental chapel room (Rupertikapelle); Today the keep houses the Friesach City Museum. Immediately next to it are the remains of an even older chapel (Gebhard's or Konrad's chapel).
Of the buildings that formerly enclosed the lower courtyard, only the building of the castle administration on the south side of the courtyard is well preserved. The elongated three-storey building with an arcade front on the courtyard side was built in the 16th century. Today there is an inn in it. The ruins on the west and north sides of the lower courtyard originate from formerly representative buildings from the 13th to 15th centuries (Eberhard II Palace, Leonhardsbau).
To the west of this is the Oberhof, a large fortified area that extends to the top of the rock at the highest point of the Petersberg. There is a shell tower on the north and south side of the Oberhof. The main entrance to the castle was from the west, north of the Oberhof; part of a former gate tower is still there.
literature
- Castles and palaces in Carinthia, Volume 1, ISBN 3-85030-035-0
- Handbook of Historic Places, Austria Volume II, ISBN 3-520-27902-9
- Georg Clam Martinic: Castles and Palaces in Austria, ISBN 3-85001-679-1
Web links
- Entry via Burg Petersberg to Burgen-Austria
- Castle world