Location: Flaschberg, Carinthia
Flaschberg Castle is a ruined medieval citadel near a town of Flaschberg in Carinthia state of Austria. It is open to the public and accessible by a small hiking trail.
The castle ruins are located above Flaschberg, a street village about 3 km west of Oberdrauburg. The weir system in Flaschberg was in a strategically favorable position to secure the pass road from the Drau to the Gail and Lesach valleys.
A small building known as "Flassinperc" first appeared in a document
in 1154, when a certain Ugo de Flassinperc was mentioned as a witness in
a document from Aquileia. In the regular disputes between the Counts of
Gorizia and the Archdiocese of Salzburg - both had extensive possessions
in the Drautal - the Flaschbergers were in the service of the Gorizia.
Around 1280, Ulrich von Flaschberg was accused of severely damaging the
people of Salzburg through
robbery, the capture of Salzburg subjects and illegal tax collection.
Nevertheless, the Flaschbergers were increasingly entrusted with
diplomatic missions by the Gorizia. As a result, they came into
possession of land in the Puster Valley, around Lienz and in Friuli.
With the Treaty of Pusarnitz in 1460, all of Gorizia's possessions,
including Flaschberg Castle, were placed under imperial care. Since the
Flaschbergers lost all influence as a result, Christof von Flaschberg
left Carinthia around 1500 to serve the Count of Hardegg. The castle
eventually fell to the Lords of Mandorff, who, however, sold it to the
Counts of Widmann-Ortenburg in 1643. Between 1662 and 1918 the
Flaschberger castle and lands were owned by the princes of Porcia. Today
the ruins are privately owned.
Castle ruins
The Flaschberg castle ruins are located on a
protruding rocky outcrop and were formerly a stately Romanesque complex
with three towers standing side by side. Today, however, only one of the
multi-storey towers, probably the keep, survives to a height of around
18 meters. It was built on a square plan with a side length of 10
meters. Its building fabric consists of carefully crafted quarry stone
masonry, which is reinforced at the edges with hewn tufa blocks. The
high entrance to the keep has a round arch and was located on the
north-western side of the tower. On the north-eastern side, another
round arch opening can be seen, which is supported by stone walls and on
each side of which there is a tall, rectangular slit for light. There
are no remains of the castle chapel dedicated to Saint John the Baptist,
mentioned in 1521. Little of the Palas and the curtain wall has
survived.
Castle and farm buildings
The administrator's house
from the 16th century was extended like a castle under the Counts of
Widmann-Ortenburg in the mid-17th century. The building is a two-storey,
rectangular, bay-style Renaissance building.
The no longer
preserved outbuildings were probably located on a terraced area south of
the main building.