Location: Deutschlandsberg Map
Constructed: 12th century
Deutschlandsberg Castle or a Deutschlandsberg Burg is situated in an Austrian province of Styria. It stands on a strategic mountain at an elevation of 398 meters (1,306 feet) above sea level.
The castle is 511 m above sea level. A. high rocky outcrop above the
Laßnitz, which makes its way east through the so-called Klause, a
wildly romantic valley. At the foot of the Burgberg extends
Deutschlandsberg, whose symbol is the castle.
The castle is
under monument protection. It is located on lots .2/1; .2/2; 233/7;
233/11; 243/9; 331 of the deposit number (EZ) 95 in the cadastral
community (KG) 61005 Burgegg. Other plots of land on which (already
thoroughly examined) places are located, such as plot 243/8 or no
finds are to be expected (street plots) are outside the listed area,
but are also given in the literature as the location of the castle.
The area of the archaeological site of the Altburg (dance floor,
dance square), which is also listed, is shown in the zoning plan.
Traces of settlement on a flat spot in the northeast of today's
complex, the "Tanzplatz" (also called "Tanzkogel" or "Tanzboden" and
not to be confused with the Altburg site of the same name in
Hollenegg-Neuberg), prove a settlement from prehistoric times. A
fortified settlement is suspected there as a wood-earth system. This
facility is also known as the "Altburg Deutschlandsberg". Findings
date from the Neolithic (Lasinja culture, about 3900-3300 BC) and
later periods, such as e.g. B. Clay shards of Furchenstich ceramics
of the type of the Retz-Gajary culture, widespread in Styria, from
the early Copper Age ca. 2800–2400 BC. A settlement fortified with a
wall system was built in the Hallstatt period. In the area of
today's parking lot and on the southern slope of the castle area,
late La Tène period buildings are documented. In the south of the
castle area are those archaeological sites which, through their find
material, can be compared to a previous structure from the 10th/11th
century. century. Previous research shows that there were not two
castles in this area, but that both areas were used (at least in
phases) in parallel. Further traces could be found from Roman times
and subsequent centuries up to the early Middle Ages (7th century).
Around 970, Emperor Otto I gave the area of today's
Deutschlandsberg to the Archbishopric of Salzburg. In the first half
of the 12th century, a building with a main stone tower was probably
erected under Archbishop Konrad I and handed over to the ministerial
family of the "Lonsbergers" (named after the place). 1153 a
Fridericus de Lonsberch is documented as a burgrave. In the same
year, a chapel dedicated to St. Laurentius was set up at Lonsperch
Castle. There are indications that the first fortifications in this
area on the other side of the Lassnitz valley still existed at that
time and that two fortifications therefore existed in this area at
the same time: Deutschlandsberg Castle and the Nidrinhof suspected
to be near Frauental Castle in the area of the St. Ulrich branch
church Period of Bavarian colonization in the 10th century.
In the years 1185 and 1188 the castle was first mentioned as a
castle (castrum) "Lonsperch". In 1292 the Landsberg League was
concluded as the basis for the uprising of the Styrian nobility
against Duke Albrecht I. After a fire in the western part of the
castle in the 13th century, a new Gothic castle complex was built in
the 14th century and the tower was restored. After an occupation by
the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus from 1479 to 1490, the people
of Salzburg got the castle back and refortified it. Under Hans Jacob
von Kuenburg, construction of the castle chapel began in 1597 and
was completed in 1607. This chapel was dedicated to St. Ruprecht,
the patron saint of Salzburg.
In 1532 the complex withstood
an attack by the Turks. As a result, numerous conversions and new
buildings were carried out. The recession of Vienna in 1535
clarified the legal status of castle ownership to the extent that
the area was to be treated as part of Styria (and not as an exclave
of Salzburg). The Kuenburg family bought the castle in 1595, and the
Archdiocese of Salzburg bought it back again in 1630. The castle
then became the center of the Salzburg property in western Styria.
In 1803 the complex became state property (Ärar), in 1811 it was
bought by Count Moritz von Fries, and finally in 1820 it came into
the hands of the Princely House of Liechtenstein.
Until the
first half of the 19th century there was a knights' hall in the
medieval part of the castle, on the ceiling of which the remains of
a painting depicting a battle from the Thirty Years' War could be
seen. In a prince's room there were still some portraits of Salzburg
archbishops. A picture was kept in the palace chapel that
commemorated the return of the palace captain Fröhlich von
Fröhlichsberg, who set out in 1683 with 300 men to liberate Vienna
from the second Turkish siege and returned safely.
On August
7, 1830, the round bell tower (later largely demolished) was set on
fire by lightning, but the fire was contained with the active help
of local residents and prevented it from spreading to the castle. In
a letter dated August 21, 1830, the landlordship of Liechtenstein
expressed its express thanks “to the honorable citizens of
Deutsch-Landsberg” through Josef Egger, district commissioner and
princely goods inspector.
In 1876 the round tower in the north of the complex was shortened,
and in 1885/1890 the Romanesque tower with the remains of the first
castle chapel was blown up. In 1932 the municipality of Deutschlandsberg
acquired the castle. Until then, the complex had belonged to the
entailed property of the Liechtenstein dominion. Around 1945 the castle
had fallen into disrepair. During the time of Mayor Paul Dittrich
(1946-1948), the complex was at least secured with building stone
campaigns, castle festivals and volunteer helpers, piles of rubble were
removed and the difference in height in the castle courtyard of 2.68
meters was compensated for by terraces and steps. The Romanesque tower
was rebuilt in 2011/12 according to plans dating from around 1803, and
the castle cistern, which was expanded around 1631, was made accessible
again and explained in guided tours on Monument Day 2014. The cistern
collected the water from the roof surfaces in an ingenious system where
it was cleaned by several clarifiers and a sand filter.
The new
tower has four floors, is covered with a tent-like roof and is used for
museum purposes. The effort of €800,000 was largely financed by grants
from the EU (regional fund ERDF) and the state of Styria. The Romanesque
core castle at its feet is also being renovated, and the construction of
its ring wall on the steep slope to the Laßnitzschlucht began in 2014.
In 2017, the tower was provided with a 15 m high, 60 degree steep
roof made of titanium zinc sheeting, the appearance of which is based on
the shape of the roof in the 19th century and whose lifespan was
estimated at centuries. An amount of 270,000 euros was mentioned as a
cost, which was made available by the state of Styria and 80 percent
came from funds from the European Union.
The name of the castle
does not go back to the German word for an area in the word part
"Land-", but to a Slavic expression, which is also contained in the name
Laßnitz and which occurs several times in southern Austria. It denotes a
clearing site, wet meadow, a forest stream, etc. The syllable "Deutsch-"
was only put in front of the name in the 19th century to distinguish
what was then Landsberg from the place of the same name in Slovenia
"Windisch-Landsberg": today's Podčetrtek was then also still in (lower)
Styria.
A gate on the north-east side gives access to the castle. The oldest
still visible parts of the complex are in the southwest. There is the
tower house from the Gothic period, which characterizes the appearance
of the complex.
Behind this building (to the south-west of it)
the remains of the oldest building were discovered: a polygonal tower,
which is dated to the beginning of the 12th century. This tower was
protected by a moat, over which a castle chapel was built in the High
Middle Ages. This was followed by a residential building (palas). The
moat in front of the tower today is already the second moat. The
designation "Landsberg und Thurn" is documented for the beginning of the
19th century. This is attributed to the fact that it consisted of two
towers that were later connected by several residential buildings.
Whether this can be interpreted as an indication that originally two
separate settlements or fortifications were built at the current
location of the castle cannot be proven.
The tower house
corresponds to the type that is common in western Styria. It was built
in the first half of the 14th century, as evidenced by Gothic pointed
arches. To the north of the tower house are extensions from the
Renaissance, dated 1604, which are connected to the old building by a
connecting passage. This area is called Kienburg. In the south of this
wing there is a converted "knight's hall wing", a stable wing to the
northwest of it has been removed, but still appears on older depictions
with its rows of windows. Today's entrance area is located in the outer
bailey, which is even further north-east. There, too, the foundations of
a building from the Middle Ages and finds were recovered, which -
together with finds from the "Tanzplatz", the primeval settlement site
nearby - indicated several buildings (with two tiled stoves).
The
finds show that in the Middle Ages, Deutschlandsberg Castle extended
from the oldest southern part to the area around the dance floor.
The site has been extensively studied through a series of
archaeological excavations. The resulting publications make
Deutschlandsberg Castle one of the best-documented castles in Styria.
Finds are exhibited in the castle museum.
The castle is easily
accessible by a road and several hiking trails from Deutschlandsberg.
Deutschlandsberg train station is about two kilometers away.
From the 12th century to 1803, the castle was the administrative
center for the possessions of the Archdiocese of Salzburg in western
Styria. It was the center of a court district whose area of
responsibility stretched from the town of Deutschlandsberg to the
border with Carinthia on the Koralpe: the regional court
(Deutsch-)Landsberg. This special position was attributed to the
immunity of the area since the 12th century (1178, uncertain) under the
rule of the archbishopric of Salzburg.
Like a number of other
fortifications in the area (e.g. Schwanberg, Spangstein, Wessenstein),
Deutschlandsberg Castle was also located at the beginning of paths
across the Koralpenzug from Styria to Carinthia: These were the road via
Trahütten and the wine plain south of the castle and the Road over
Freiland, Kloster and the Hebalm north of it.
On the mountain to
the south, opposite Deutschlandsberg Castle, beyond the deeply incised
valley of the Laßnitz, there is also an old settlement at the
Kraxnerkogel. This place is about 750 m as the crow flies from
Deutschlandsberg Castle on the road to Trahütten and the Weinebene, it
was used until the Middle Ages. At her the site of a tower castle is
assumed. Whether and what relationships the two places had to each other
is not documented in the literature.
From 1958, the complex was
expanded by the municipality of Deutschlandsberg into a museum ("Archeo
Norico") and event rooms with a restaurant while retaining the building
structure.
In 1981 the castle museum (today "Archeo Norico") was opened. It
contains the following permanent exhibitions:
Exhibition of
Prehistory and Early History
a Celtic exhibition (myth of the Celts)
weapons exhibition
torture chamber
Antique gold, silver and bronze
jewelry
From forest glass to the first industrial glass - 3000 years
of Styrian glass
Changing special exhibitions complement the
offer. The castle museum contains exhibits from the period from 5000 BC
to 1600 m². to the 19th century. The museum focuses on the Bronze Age,
the Urnfield culture and the La Tène period. The gold and bronze finds
are counted among the most impressive metal finds of these times. Most
of the historical finds come from the Steffan Brothers Foundation for
Prehistory and Early History, through which family-owned exhibits are
made accessible in cooperation with the Federal Monuments Office.
The museum exhibits a pencil drawing from 1662, the original of
which was handed over to the museum at the opening of the castle
exhibition in 2018 together with some of the furnishings of the former
castle chapel (candlesticks, veil, canon tables, meditation book).
The 185 cm high bronze sculpture "Karyatid" created by the
sculptress Hortensia (Hortensia Fussy) in 1979-1984 has adorned the
entrance to the museum since 2009 and has become a popular photo motif
there.
Criticism
Established archaeological research has
criticized the fact that the impressive inventory of metal finds
presented in the museum was largely the result of decades of robbery
digging and probing, or the purchase of objects with a dubious
background. Accordingly, many pieces have no or only a vague indication
of provenance and are therefore of little scientific value.