Steuerberg castle ruins
| Steuerberg castle ruins | ||
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| Alternative name (s): | Touernich, Tauernich, Dovernig, Dovernic, Dovernik, Styrberch, Steyrberch, Steuerburg, Marbauer Castle | |
| Creation time : | around 1100 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, rocky location | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Ministeriale | |
| Place: | Steuerberg -Wabl | |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 47 '51.7 " N , 14 ° 4' 50.5" E | |
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The castle ruin Steuerberg is the ruin of a rock castle on a wooded rock cone at the entrance to Engen Gurk near Wabl, a district of the municipality of Steuerberg in the Feldkirchen district in Carinthia , Austria . It was initially known as Touernich / Tauernich Castle or Dovernig / Dovernic / Dovernik, later as Steyrberch, Styrberch and Steuerberg. The name is derived from the former liege lords of the castle, the Margraves of Steyr . Today it is popularly referred to as the Marbauer Castle.
Geographical location
The castle ruins stand on a wooded cliff west of the Gurktal Straße (B 93) to the upper Gurk , around 800 m south of the Gurk. A hiking trail leads from the Gurktal Straße at the Neuwirt inn in Wabl to the top of the rock. The ruin is not visible from the valley.
history
The castle was probably built by the Eppenstein dukes of Carinthia in the 11th century. After the male line of Eppenstein died out in 1122, the castle was owned by the Lords of Touernich in the 12th century as feudal lords of the new Carinthian dukes from the Spanheimer family . It is the first time in an undated memo donation of Styrian Benedictine - monastery Admont mentioned, whose creation was limited to the period 1130-1145. The donation took place when the noble free Reginher (sometimes also called Reinher) de Touernich, son of Swiker I von Hollenburg , and his wife Petrissa von Feistritz handed their young and only son Luitold over to the monastery for upbringing and gave up his parents and maternal relations On this occasion the monastery bequeathed extensive possessions in the Steuerberger area and in the Mölltal , including Gut Dalling and other Huben on Zammelsberg , in Steuerberg and around Glödnitz . In 1147, Reginher de Touernich joined his liege, Bernhard von Spanheim , the Margrave of the Windische Mark , King Konrad III. on the Second Crusade . Margrave Bernhard, who had marched along the coast of Asia Minor with the army of Bishop Otto von Freising , died on November 16, 1147 near Laodikeia during the attack of the Rum Seljuks with most of his knights, but Reginher returned to Carinthia unharmed. Bernhard's lands, and with them his ministerials, came to a nephew of his wife, the Margrave Ottokar III. from Styr . After its new owner, Touernich Castle was soon called "Styrberch". The name was changed between 1147 and 1169: in a document from Patriarch Ulrich II of Aquileia from March 24, 1169, the lord of the castle was first referred to as "Reinherus de Styrberch". The name Touernich is likely to have remained in use until the 13th century.
In 1180, shortly before his death, Reginher himself stood in the monastery Admont where his son Luitold 1165 to 1171 Abbot had been. His wife Petrissa went to the Admont convent at the same time. Reginher's brother Gebhard also went to the monastery. The castle and rule of Steuerberg passed to Reginher's nephew Otto, the son of his brother Swiker II von Hollenburg. With Otto and his brother Amelrich, the Steuerbergers died out in the male line by 1246 at the latest. They were inherited by the Lords of Pettau ( Ptuj ), Salzburg ministers ; Mathilde von Hollenburg-Wurmberg († 1265) had married Hartnid von Pettau († 1251). After the death of Hartnid I, the son of the two, in 1254, the castle and rule of Steuerberg passed to the Counts of Ortenburg . During the decades of inheritance battles for the neighboring Albeck Castle , the Peggauer-Pfannberger fled to Steuerberg Castle in 1260 after they had been driven from Albeck Castle by the vassals of Gurk Bishop Dietrich II . Count Heinrich von Pfannberg since 1253 Governor of Styria and a relative of the Count Friedrich von Ortenburg, who was Steuerberg at that time owner of domination, undertook in 1264 from the castle Steuerberg from several campaigns against possessions of the diocese Gurk, with whom he in feud was . After another attack by the Peggauer on Gurk possessions, the people of the Gurk bishop stormed the Steuerberg castle and set it on fire.
On a document dated June 15, 1305, a coat of arms seal of the Ortenburg ministerial Otto von Steierberg, who resides at the castle, can be found for the first time. It shows three small shields attached to a hump ring with a strap. This coat of arms seal served as the basis for the coat of arms that was awarded to the municipality of Steuerberg on March 8, 1966. The official blazon of the coat of arms reads: "In green three silver shields connected by black straps with a black hump ring in a three-pass."
According to an inheritance contract between the Counts of Ortenburg and the Counts of Cilli from 1377, when the Ortenburgers went out in 1418, their property, including the Steuerberg Castle, fell to the Cillier. In 1456, the Habsburgs inherited the rule of Steuerberg and most of the vast Cillier territories on the basis of an inheritance treaty. Emperor Maximilian I left them to the Order of the St. George Knights of Millstatt in 1517 . The order, which was founded in 1469 to ward off the Turks , quickly fell into disrepair after the death of Emperor Maximilian; From 1541 his possessions were pledged or administered by imperial commissioners . In 1588, Archduke Karl made sure that Steuerberg Castle was pledged to his court chamberlain, Hans von Basseyo , to whom he owed, until the death of his "Catholic sons".
In 1598, the entire property of the now de facto extinct Order of St. George was handed over to the Jesuit College Graz as the legal successor to the St. George Knights, including the Steuerberg Castle. From 1607 the castle was probably administered by the Jesuit rule of Millstatt . After the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773, the student fund rule Millstatt, as the successor to the Jesuits, administered the Steuerberg property under a state cameraman and also exercised jurisdiction in the Steuerberg castle keep. The income from the lordship was used to finance the University of Graz . In 1797 the student fund rulers sold the Steuerberg rulership, which included farms in Albeck and Deutsch-Griffen, around 20 properties in the area of what is now the municipality of Steuerberg, to the Gurk prince-bishop Franz II. Xaver von Salm-Reifferscheidt . In 1825 Matthias Liebenwein, owner of the Poitschach estate , acquired the Steuerberg estate with the castle, which had already fallen into disrepair, from the estate of the Prince-Bishop, who had died in 1822. As early as 1827, the castle was no longer shown in the cadastral plan.
The attachment
A building description of the castle from 1603 has been preserved; it was still intact then. In 1688, however, it was obviously no longer of importance and was probably already in decline: in his topography of the Archduchy of Carinthia, Johann Weichard von Valvasor only mentioned the old castle in passing as it was not far from Albeck Castle on a high mountain and the Jesuits of Millstatt proper.
Based on the remains of the wall and the description from 1603, one can imagine what the castle once looked like. The walled structure was 70 meters long facing north-south and up to 20 meters wide. Although it was quite high, it was accessible via a drivable path. As a utility building, the castle had only a few living spaces. Stables and storage rooms took up most of the space.
The actual castle - the residential wing - was in the southern part, the castle courtyard with stable and battlement in the north. The entrance to the castle was in the west in the middle of the curtain wall and was closed with a heavy wooden door. A moat with a drawbridge separated the southern part with the main buildings from the rest of the castle. There was a brick cistern in the trench .
Under the main wing there was a large cellar carved into the rock and two smaller vaulted cellars across its entire width. The cellar ceiling was made of wood and supported on pillars. The grain bin , the kitchen vault and the servants' room were located above the large cellar . This was followed by two more rooms which, among other things, served as a warehouse . Little light fell into these lower rooms from a small courtyard between two side walls. A wooden staircase led to the upper floor. There was the "Mueshaus", the dining room, which like most of the other rooms on this floor had two windows. At the front was the main room with four beautiful windows, from which the view of the Meierhof in Wabl was below the castle and into the valley. A staircase led from the dining room under the roof. The corners on the front were closed with wooden bay windows .
The chapel was located in the spacious courtyard . The original building was probably built a little further to the east in the 12th century, with the apse being integrated into the curtain wall. Probably towards the end of the 13th century, the chapel was moved a little further west; Parts of the old chapel wall served as the foundation for the new outer walls.
The stables for 20 horses were located in the northern part of the facility. Above it was a grain bin, and under the roof hay and straw were stored.
literature
- Stefan Eichert: The castle ruins of Steuerberg ; in: Wilhelm Wadl: Steuerberg. Hidden paradise in the heart of Carinthia. Verlag Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt, 2001
- Heinz Dopsch, Karl Brunner, Maximilian Weltin: Austrian History 1122–1278. The countries and the empire. The Eastern Alps in the High Middle Ages. Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna, 1999
- Adalbert Krause: The Styrian Benedictine monastery Admont in its relationship with Carinthia ; in: Carinthia I. Journal for spiritual regional studies of Carinthia. Commemoration for the 900th anniversary of the Gurk diocese 1072–1972. Publishing house of the History Association of Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1972
Web links
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Also Swigger or Schweikhart.
- ^ Luitold appears in a document in 1160 as a priest. On July 1, 1165, the monks elected him abbot and on April 17, 1166 he received the benediction from Archbishop Konrad II of Salzburg . August Jaksch , the editor of the Carinthian document book, therefore assumed that his entry into the monastery must have taken place at least 20-25 years earlier and dated the deed of donation between 1140 and 1145. As about the age of Liutold, who owned the monastery from 1165 until his death in 1171, but nothing is known, the entry into the monastery and the donation could have been made around 1130 or around 1150.
- ↑ Styrberch became Steierberg during the phonetic shift, which was the official name of the municipality until after 1850. The conversion to Steuerberg only happened after 1850. Colloquially, the community is still called Steierberg today.
- ↑ Quoted from Wilhelm Deuer: The Carinthian municipal coat of arms . Verlag des Kärntner Landesarchiv, Klagenfurt, 2006, ISBN 3-900531-64-1 , p. 274
- ↑ Basseyo, ennobled as a baron, was Carinthian provincial administrator from 1593.
- ↑ This became a rural property in 1745.