Hochosterwitz Castle
Encyclopedia
Hochosterwitz Castle is considered to be one of Austria
's most impressive medieval
castles. It is situated on a 160 metres (524.9 ft) Dolomite rock
near Sankt Georgen am Längsee
, east of the town of Sankt Veit an der Glan
in the state of Carinthia
. The castle is one of the state's landmarks and can be seen from about 30 km (18.6 mi) away on a clear day.
of East Francia, donating several of his properties in the former Principality of Carantania to the Archdiocese of Salzburg
. It was then named as ‘Astarwiza’, its name being of Slavic
origin. In the 11th century Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg
ceded the castle to the Dukes of Carinthia
from the noble House of Sponheim
in return for their support during the Investiture Controversy
. The Sponheim dukes bestowed the fiefdom
upon the family of Osterwitz, who held the hereditary office of the cup-bearer
in 1209.
In his book Change the Austro-American psychologist Paul Watzlawick
renders a popular tale of the siege of the castle by the troops of Margarete Maultasch ("Mouth Bag"), Countess of Tyrol
from 1335 to 1363. According to legend first noted by the medieval chronicler Jakob Unrest and later by Jacob Grimm
, Margarete, cheated by the House of Habsburg of her inheritance claims to Carinthia, invaded the duchy; her forces were however deceived and withdrew when the garrison of Hochosterwitz slaughtered its very last ox, filled it with corn and threw it over the wall, pretending it still had so many provisions in stock that they could be used as projectiles.
In the 15th century, the last Carinthian cup-bearer, Georg of Osterwitz was captured in a Turkish
invasion and died in 1476 in prison without leaving descendants. Hans, cup-bearer of Osterwitz was the last remaining survivor of the family. He had a substantial debt owing to the Emperor and was forced to give up the deeds of the castle to pay his debt. So after four centuries, on 30 May 1478, the possession of the castle reverted to Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg
.
Over the next thirty years the castle was badly damaged by numerous Turkish campaigns. On 5 October 1509, Emperor Maximilian I
handed the castle as a pledge to Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg
, then Bishop of Gurk
. Bishop Lang undertook a substantial renovation project for the damaged castle.
About 1541 German king Ferdinand I of Habsburg
bestowed Hochosterwitz upon the Carinthian governor Christof Khevenhüller. In 1571, Baron George Khevenhüller acquired the citadel by purchase. He fortified to deal with the threat of Turkish invasions of the region, building an armoury and 14 gates from 1570-1586. Such massive fortification is considered unique in citadel construction. Because of the 14 gates, each equipped with different treacherous methods of guarding the path, local legend maintains that the castle has never been conquered and that any of the attacks managed to get beyond the fourth (Engelstor) gate.
Some parts of the castle are open to the public every year from Easter to the end of October. Tourists are allowed to walk the 620 metres (2,034.1 ft) long pathway through the 14 gates up to the castle; each gate has a diagram of the defense mechanism used to seal that particular gate.
Hochosterwitz Castle can be reached by car or an easy hike from the Sankt Veit an der Glan
train station, with connection to nearby Klagenfurt
.
A 1:25 miniature scale model
of Hochosterwitz Castle may be seen at Minimundus
, a popular tourist attraction in Klagenfurt
approximately 20 km (12.4 mi) away.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
's most impressive medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
castles. It is situated on a 160 metres (524.9 ft) Dolomite rock
Dolomite
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....
near Sankt Georgen am Längsee
Sankt Georgen am Längsee
Sankt Georgen am Längsee is a town in the district of Sankt Veit an der Glan in Carinthia in Austria.-References:...
, east of the town of Sankt Veit an der Glan
Sankt Veit an der Glan
Sankt Veit an der Glan is a town in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is the capital of a district with the same name.-Location:This town is a major point on the Glan River in the north of the Zollfeld Valley....
in the state of Carinthia
Carinthia (state)
Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...
. The castle is one of the state's landmarks and can be seen from about 30 km (18.6 mi) away on a clear day.
History
The site was first mentioned in in a 860 deed issued by King Louis the GermanLouis the German
Louis the German , also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian, was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.He received the appellation 'Germanicus' shortly after his death in recognition of the fact...
of East Francia, donating several of his properties in the former Principality of Carantania to the Archdiocese of Salzburg
Archbishopric of Salzburg
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire, its territory roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg....
. It was then named as ‘Astarwiza’, its name being of Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
origin. In the 11th century Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg
Gebhard of Salzburg
Blessed Gebhard of Salzburg , also occasionally known as Gebhard of Helfenstein, was Archbishop of Salzburg from 1060 until his death. He was one of the fiercest opponents of King Henry IV during the Investiture Controversy....
ceded the castle to the Dukes of Carinthia
Duchy of Carinthia
The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, then the first newly created Imperial State beside the original German stem duchies....
from the noble House of Sponheim
House of Sponheim
The House of Sponheim or Spanheim was a noble family of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages. They were Dukes of Carinthia from 1122 until 1269 and Counts of Sponheim until 1437...
in return for their support during the Investiture Controversy
Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was the most significant conflict between Church and state in medieval Europe. In the 11th and 12th centuries, a series of Popes challenged the authority of European monarchies over control of appointments, or investitures, of church officials such...
. The Sponheim dukes bestowed the fiefdom
Fiefdom
A fee was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable lands granted under one of several varieties of feudal tenure by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the...
upon the family of Osterwitz, who held the hereditary office of the cup-bearer
Cup-bearer
A cup-bearer was an officer of high rank in royal courts, whose duty it was to serve the drinks at the royal table. On account of the constant fear of plots and intrigues, a person must be regarded as thoroughly trustworthy to hold this position. He must guard against poison in the king's cup, and...
in 1209.
Paul Watzlawick
Paul Watzlawick was an Austrian-American psychologist and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he has commented in the fields of family therapy and general psychotherapy...
renders a popular tale of the siege of the castle by the troops of Margarete Maultasch ("Mouth Bag"), Countess of Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
from 1335 to 1363. According to legend first noted by the medieval chronicler Jakob Unrest and later by Jacob Grimm
Jacob Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy...
, Margarete, cheated by the House of Habsburg of her inheritance claims to Carinthia, invaded the duchy; her forces were however deceived and withdrew when the garrison of Hochosterwitz slaughtered its very last ox, filled it with corn and threw it over the wall, pretending it still had so many provisions in stock that they could be used as projectiles.
In the 15th century, the last Carinthian cup-bearer, Georg of Osterwitz was captured in a Turkish
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
invasion and died in 1476 in prison without leaving descendants. Hans, cup-bearer of Osterwitz was the last remaining survivor of the family. He had a substantial debt owing to the Emperor and was forced to give up the deeds of the castle to pay his debt. So after four centuries, on 30 May 1478, the possession of the castle reverted to Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick the Peaceful KG was Duke of Austria as Frederick V from 1424, the successor of Albert II as German King as Frederick IV from 1440, and Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III from 1452...
.
Over the next thirty years the castle was badly damaged by numerous Turkish campaigns. On 5 October 1509, Emperor Maximilian I
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...
handed the castle as a pledge to Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg
Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg
Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg was a statesman of the Holy Roman Empire, a Cardinal and Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1519 to his death....
, then Bishop of Gurk
Roman Catholic Diocese of Gurk
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gurk is a diocese comprising the Austrian state of Carinthia and is part of the Ecclesiastical province of Salzburg. Due to the presence of Carinthian Slovenes the Slovenian language is, together with Latin and German, the language of the liturgy in the Southern parts...
. Bishop Lang undertook a substantial renovation project for the damaged castle.
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...
bestowed Hochosterwitz upon the Carinthian governor Christof Khevenhüller. In 1571, Baron George Khevenhüller acquired the citadel by purchase. He fortified to deal with the threat of Turkish invasions of the region, building an armoury and 14 gates from 1570-1586. Such massive fortification is considered unique in citadel construction. Because of the 14 gates, each equipped with different treacherous methods of guarding the path, local legend maintains that the castle has never been conquered and that any of the attacks managed to get beyond the fourth (Engelstor) gate.
Present
Since the 16th century, no major changes have been made to Hochosterwitz. It has also remained in the possession of the Khevenhüller family as requested by the original builder, George Khevenhüller. A marble plaque dating from 1576 in the castle yard documents this request.Some parts of the castle are open to the public every year from Easter to the end of October. Tourists are allowed to walk the 620 metres (2,034.1 ft) long pathway through the 14 gates up to the castle; each gate has a diagram of the defense mechanism used to seal that particular gate.
Hochosterwitz Castle can be reached by car or an easy hike from the Sankt Veit an der Glan
Sankt Veit an der Glan
Sankt Veit an der Glan is a town in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is the capital of a district with the same name.-Location:This town is a major point on the Glan River in the north of the Zollfeld Valley....
train station, with connection to nearby Klagenfurt
Klagenfurt
-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...
.
A 1:25 miniature scale model
Scale model
A scale model is a physical model, a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object, which seeks to maintain the relative proportions of the physical size of the original object. Very often the scale model is used as a guide to making the object in...
of Hochosterwitz Castle may be seen at Minimundus
Minimundus
The Minimundus is a miniature park on the Wörthersee at Klagenfurt in Carinthia, Austria. It displays over 150 miniature models of architecture from around the world, built at a ratio of 1:25....
, a popular tourist attraction in Klagenfurt
Klagenfurt
-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...
approximately 20 km (12.4 mi) away.
External links
- Burg Hochosterwitz Official Site (retrieved Nov 6, 2005)
- Burg Hochosterwitz Burg Galerie Official Site (retrieved Jul 3, 2010)