Gösting castle ruins

Gösting castle ruins
Creation time :	before 1042
Castle type :	Höhenburg, rocky location
Conservation status:	ruin
Place:	Gösting
Geographical location	47 ° 6 '14 "  N , 15 ° 22' 52"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 6 '14 "  N , 15 ° 22' 52"  E
Height:	574  m above sea level A.

The Gösting castle ruins are the ruins of a once important hilltop castle in Graz . It is located in the north-west of the city in Gösting , the 13th district of the state capital of Styria . It has not been accessible since July 2020.

location

The ruins of the rock castle stand at 574  m above sea level. A. on a narrow ridge on a steep rock above a former Roman road: the foothills of the Steinkogel  ( 742  m above sea level ) is now called Göstinger ruins mountain . Due to its strategically favorable location, the castle secured the passage through the valley including the Mur from the Gratkorner into the Graz Basin and controlled traffic and trade to and from Graz.

The castle ruins, located 200 meters above the city of Graz, are a popular excursion destination because the location offers visitors a wide view of the Graz basin and the eastern Styrian hill country . The castle can only be reached on foot in around 30 minutes from Göstinger Schlossplatz . In the inner courtyard there was a restaurant (without electricity and running water), which was temporarily closed at the beginning of July 2020 due to health problems of the operator. The Jungfernsprung , east of the castle, is another vantage point.

history

Gate view of the Gösting castle ruins with cistern

General view from the south

Interior of the Gösting castle ruins

The castle was built in the 11th century; a first mention is known from the year 1042. In 1042, Emperor Heinrich III. the margrave Gottfried from the Wels-Lambacher dynasty two royal caves of land around the area of ​​the castle. In 1050 Gottfried Gösting passed on to his brother Adalbero von Würzburg . During the investiture controversy, the castle should have come into the possession of the Eppensteiner . When Duke Heinrich III. died, it went to the Traungauer . From this time until the 17th century, the castle was always owned by the sovereigns and looked after by burgraves, administrators, tenants and pledges.

It was constantly expanded until the 15th century. In the 15th century the small castle was expanded into a fortress to provide protection against the threats from the Turks and Hungarians . It was part of the chalk fire warning system, which was intended to warn the population of threats. In 1707 the castle and the manor were acquired by the Counts of Attems .

On July 10, 1723, lightning struck the castle where the powder storage of the city of Graz was located. A large part of the building fabric fell victim to the flames. The castle was not rebuilt as a result. As a replacement, the baroque Gösting Castle at the foot of the castle hill was completed as the new family seat of the Attems. From 1790 onwards, the remains of the castle wall began to deteriorate rapidly. In 1843/44, workers demolished the north wall of the great hall in order to obtain stones as building material for the railway. In 1874 the south-eastern part of the keep collapsed.

The ruin is looked after by the Gösting Castle Association, founded in 1925. Since then there has been backup and restore work. In 1999 the Hubert Auer family of bakers bought the ruins and the surrounding forests. When the operator of the restaurant inside the castle temporarily closed operations for health reasons at the beginning of July 2020, the castle area was also closed to visitors as a private property.

investment

Today the three-storey castle chapel of St. Anna , in which services are held, the keep with a small museum, remains of the "Upper Castle" west of the keep and the walled pentagonal tower still stand from the former castle complex.

A brick ramp can be seen on the north side of the ruin, the former entrance to the castle. A later entrance led along the defensive wall of the front castle and then turned sharply to the west. It led over a ditch (now gone) and a drawbridge into the inner courtyard. The complex was once surrounded by a battlements crowned defensive wall with battlements . In the west there was a neck ditch as an additional defense system.

The residential buildings stood in the northern part of the inner courtyard and the farm buildings in the southern part. A cistern that still exists today ensured the castle's water supply. The forecourt of the castle was built in the 16th century. Linden trees once stood there, which is why it is popularly known as "Lindengarten".

literature

• Robert Baravalle: Castles and palaces of Styria. An encyclopaedic collection of the Styrian fortifications and properties, which were endowed with various privileges . With 100 representations after Vischer from the "Schlösserbuch" from 1681. Stasny, Graz 1961, p. 9–13 (Unchanged reprint. Leykam, Graz 1995, ISBN 3-7011-7323-0 ).
• Horst Schweigert: DEHIO Graz . Schroll, Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-7031-0475-9 , p. 234-235 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} "Private property": Gösting castle ruins are no longer accessible. In: The Grazer. www.grazer.at, July 12, 2020, accessed on July 12, 2020 .  
2. ↑ ^{a b} Baravalle: Castles and palaces of Styria . Stasny, Graz 1961, p. 9-13 .
3. ^ Schweigert: Dehio Graz. P. 234.
4. ^ Extract from the land register of the Graz District Court
5. ↑ Hiking to the Gösting castle ruins , stadt-graz.at - with description and illustration of the interior; Paul Werner Roth: Remarks on the Gösting Castle Chapel near Graz - On patronage. In: Historical yearbook of the city of Graz. Vol. 3, 1970, ISSN  0440-9728 , pp. 31-34.
6. ^ Topographia Ducatus Stiriae.

Web links

Commons : Burg Gösting  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry via Gösting castle ruins on Burgen-Austria
• Gösting Castle on a private website
• Geological information on the building history of Gösting Castle near Graz
• Gösting Castle Association