Feldbacher Tabor
The Feldbacher Tabor is a fortification ( Tabor ) built in the second half of the 15th century around the church in the southeast Styrian town of Feldbach . Its purpose was to protect the population in times of war. Today the Feldbacher Tabor is one of the best preserved fortifications of this type and houses a museum.
Historical background
The second half of the 15th century went down in the history of Styria as a "time of land plagues". The life of the population was threatened not only by the appearance of locusts and the plague , but also and above all by the spreading feuds and the invasions of Hungarians and Turks. Since the landlords and the sovereign often could not or did not want to fulfill their obligation to protect the subjects , they were often forced to take care of their own protection.
History of the Feldbacher Tabor
In 1469 the Feldbach market , which until then lay unarmed on a river terrace in the Raab Valley, was attacked and occupied by the troops of Andreas Baumkircher († 1471). This event during the so-called Baumkirch feud was apparently the immediate reason for the construction of the tabor, which is commemorated by an inscription stone with the year 1474.
The Feldbach parish church of St. Leonhard was then surrounded by a double moat fed by the Raab and a high wall with a gate. The wall was battlements and was of loopholes broken. On the inside were eleven small, two- to three-storey alley or tabor houses with a vaulted cellar, living rooms, storerooms and stables. These escape houses were assigned to the individual town houses of the market. The parish alley on which the mentioned inscription stone is located had three cellars, two living rooms and a granary. In the unobstructed part of the tabor, the population around the market could find shelter.
When the Heiducken, allied with the Turks, invaded Styria in 1605, the market was destroyed on October 26th, but the Tabor withstood all attempts at storm. The Heiducken incursion was decisive for the fact that after 1615 the market itself was also surrounded by a wall pierced by gates. In the course of this fortification work, however, the Tabor was also restored, which served as a prison for those accused of witchcraft during the great Feldbach witch trial (1673–1675) . The so-called "Hexenkeller" of the Tabormuseum still reminds of this dark episode in the history of the market.
Towards the end of the 17th century, the Tabor increasingly lost its importance and finally lost its military function completely in the 18th century. For a long time, the Taborhäuschen served as school and storage rooms, magazines, and vegetable and ice cellars.
It was not until the opening of the Feldbacher Heimatmuseum in 1952 that the Tabor was given a new purpose. The establishment of a support association and the patronage of the municipality of Feldbach ensured that it was preserved since 1986. The museum was constantly expanded in the following decades and now occupies almost the entire structure. Today it houses twelve different departments in 41 rooms that document life in Eastern Styria from the Stone Age to the recent past, as well as the geology and biology of the region. The facility has been called Heimat.Museum im Tabor since 2014 . The collection was supplemented with World War II and the fire department.
Web links
- Website of the Heimat.Museum in Tabor
- Information on the history of the Feldbach Tabor and the Heimat.Museum im Tabor (website of the city of Feldbach)
- Information on the history of the Feldbacher Tabor and the Tabor Museum (website of the Office of the Styrian Provincial Government)
Coordinates: 46 ° 57 ′ 9.9 ″ N , 15 ° 53 ′ 19.6 ″ E