Lengberg Castle
Lengberg Castle is a castle in Tyrol whose origins go back to 1190. Today it is used by the youth organization.
location
Lengberg Castle is located on a small hill on the north side of the Drautal in the municipality of Nikolsdorf , near the Carinthian border; approx. 13 kilometers east of the East Tyrolean district capital Lienz .
history
Origins
The first written mention of Lengberg Castle is dated to 1190. At that time Lengberg Castle belonged to the domain of the Counts of Lechsgemünde . This is a Swabian ruling family whose ancestral castle was located at the confluence of the Lech and the Danube.
Historians assume that this ruling family built Lengberg Castle in the 12th century in order to better manage their possessions. Architecturally considered is at the former Burg a Roman construction consisting of a two-story Palas with a 2.20 meter thick ring wall . Lengberg Castle did not have a keep , which suggests that the building was used for administrative purposes.
13th Century
In 1207, the then Count Heinrich von Lechsgemünde sold Lengberg Castle together with the lords of Matrei and Mittersill to the then Archbishop Eberhard von Salzburg. In the course of this purchase agreement it was agreed that Heinrich should keep the right of use of the three lords during his lifetime.
After the death of Heinrich von Lechsgemünde in 1212, the rule of Lengberg came to the Archbishopric of Salzburg (secular property of the Archdiocese of Salzburg ). The archbishop then appointed a castle keeper , castle judge or bailiff , who administered the rule and spoke the law on behalf of the archbishop. The resulting court in Lengberg was also given lower jurisdiction . In the next 150 years several noble families alternated in the care, i. H. the administration of the castle.
The first caretakers that can be proven in Lengberg were Alram von Matrei in 1223 and the brothers Otto and Weringand von Matrei in 1241.157 Between 1273 and 1284, Burgrave Friedrich von Lienz promised to manage Lengberg Castle faithfully, which Archbishop Friedrich had graced it.
15./16. century
In 1480 Virgil von Graben was given the office of burgrave / castle keeper in Lengberg. Major reconstruction work took place between 1480 and 1485 when Von Graben Lengberg extended it in a Gothic style .
The two-story castle at that time was given an additional floor as part of these renovations, supplemented with a west wing and an east wing. A castle chapel was installed in the so-called west wing , which was consecrated to Saints Sebastian and Nicholas in 1485 . The church chapel was consecrated by the then Bishop of Caorle, Pietro Carolo . This consecration and the subsequent festivities were described by his secretary at the time, Paolo Santonino, in his travel diary “Itinerarium”. In addition to these main construction activities, the defensive wall was also increased and supplemented by a kennel wall . The castle gate had to be adapted to the lower courtyard level at the time. Since then, it has been about 3 meters lower.
After Virgil von Graben's death, the office of keeper and judge changed to other noble families.
17./18. century
The following years looked rather dreary for Lengberg Castle. There are frequent correspondence from the time between the castle keeper and the archbishop of Salzburg, which mainly concerned money claims from the castle keeper for necessary renovation work on the castle. At the end of the 18th century, the condition of the castle was so unbearable for the then judge Josef Franz von Getzinger that he moved from the castle to the Getzenhof below and from then on held court there.
19th century
In the 19th century, the owners of Lengberg Castle took turns. In the course of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, the Archdiocese of Salzburg was dissolved and converted into the Electorate of Salzburg . For the court of Lengberg, and thus for Lengberg Castle, this meant that it now became part of the Electorate of Salzburg and was therefore handed over to the Habsburg Grand Duke Ferdinand of Toscana . It thus belonged to the House of Habsburg .
In the course of the Napoleonic wars and the defeat of the Habsburg coalition against Napoleon, East Tyrol came to the newly founded Illyrian provinces and thus under French administration. The Lengberg court, which had still existed, was now closed in 1812. The Lengberg Castle building fell into disrepair in the years that followed.
With the defeat of Napoleon , the Austrian administration officially returned in 1816. The court in Lengberg, which was closed in 1812, was not re-established; his area was united with the district court Lienz and thus assigned to the county of Tyrol.
Lengberg Castle has been privately owned since 1821. On the one hand it was used as an altar workshop, on the other hand it was also used as a hospital during the cholera epidemic of 1831. Despite many private suggestions regarding the use of Lengberg Castle (among other things, Franz Clement wanted to set up a holiday home for children in Lengberg Castle), the President of the Carinthian state parliament, Karl, succeeded Count Lodron-Laterno to purchase the castle in 1913.
20th century
In 1920 the Dutch banker Paul May was able to buy the dilapidated castle. He had parts of the castle renovated so that it was habitable again. The May family was u. a. befriended the Dutch royal family, so that the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina stayed in Lengberg for a summer break.
In the course of the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany, the possessions and thus Lengberg Castle were expropriated from the May family and placed under the German Empire . To what extent the castle was used is not known. It was not until 1945 that the castle was used as a quarter by the British occupation forces . In 1948 the castle was finally returned to its actual owner, the Dutch May family.
In 1956 the May family finally sold the run-down and badly damaged castle to the State of Tyrol . In the same year the Tyrolean state parliament decided to leave the Lengberg Castle building to the social association Aufbauwerk der Jugend to carry out its tasks. Lengberg Castle, which was in need of renovation at the time, was repaired with the help of many volunteers. In the course of this renovation work, the existing castle chapel in the west wing of the palace was demolished and replaced by a kitchen. As a replacement, a new castle chapel was set up and inaugurated in the basement - in the former feed chamber - according to the plans of the architect Hubert Völlenklee . Völlenklee also adorned the front wall of the sacred space with a large fresco. It shows the death of St. Sebastian and his catacomb grave .
After these renovations, Lengberg Castle was initially used as a youth hostel . This building was later used as accommodation for the agricultural school.
The earthquake in 1976 caused severe damage to the building, so that renovation work had to be carried out again.
In addition to the actual purpose through the development of the youth, Lengberg Castle was also the venue for the culture days for the 800th anniversary of the castle.
21st century
In 2008 the general renovation financed by the state of Tyrol finally started. The whole castle was made barrier-free and expanded with an extension on the castle wall. All conversion, renovation and restoration work was carried out in coordination with the Federal Monuments Office. In this context, the archaeologists from the University of Innsbruck were able to recover valuable finds from the 14th to 18th centuries in a vault filling. In addition to a medieval one-hand flute that can be viewed at Lengberg Castle, coins, playing cards, various glasses, ceramics and remnants of clothing were found that revolutionized clothing history: several brassiere that can be dated to the 15th century using the C14 method are evidence of this the existence of bras long before the (previously assumed) invention in the 19th century! After the renovation, the castle has been used and inhabited again since January 2010 by the participants and employees of the Aufbauwerk der Jugend.
literature
- Peter Blaas: The playing cards from the vault fillings of Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol . In: Nearchos, supplement 10: Lengberger studies on medieval archeology 2 . Innsbruck 2011.
- Philipp Plattner : The documents found from the vault fillings of Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol . In: Nearchos, supplement 14: Lengberger Studies on Medieval Archeology 4 . Innsbruck 2013.
- Francesco Rosani: The found coins from the vault fillings and the excavations in the Zwinger of Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol . In: Nearchos, supplement 12: Lengberger Studies on Medieval Archeology 3 . Innsbruck 2012.
- Michael Schick: The one-hand flute from the vault fillings of Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol . In: Nearchos, supplement 8: Lengberger studies on medieval archeology 1 . Innsbruck 2010.
Web links
- Venue website
- Building the youth
- Entry via Lengberg Castle to Burgen-Austria
- Beatrix Nutz: Medieval textiles from Lengberg Castle, East Tyrol
Coordinates: 46 ° 47 '48.9 " N , 12 ° 53' 30.2" E
Individual evidence
- ↑ Philipp Plattner: The written finds from the vault fillings of Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol , Innsbruck 2013, p. 37
- ↑ Meinrad Pizzinini: The coat of arms painting on the south side of Lengberg Castle , August 2010
- ↑ Bra from the Middle Ages: The special bra