Burgruine Gmünd

P3

The castle in Gmünd ( 2006)

The Burg Gmünd, also called Old Castle is a ruined medieval hilltop castle high above Gmünd in Carinthia, Austria.

Location

The castle is located in the north of the Lieser on a hill. From the town a road leads to the castle.

History

Presumably, the castle was built in 1252. The first mention of the old castle ( Castrum ) is detectable for the February 29, 1292. In the same year Gmünd was first described as a city ( civitas ). The town received city rights in 1346. The castle was extended and expanded. It served as a military base and as a protective fortress for the population.

After a plague of locusts and a peasant uprising under siege from Hungary in 1480, the seven years the city and the castle. Only under the use of heavy artillery succeeded in Hungary the breakthrough: the city wall fell and the castle was destroyed. From 1502 to 1506, the castle was built in the second architectural epoch by the Salzburg Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach again and expanded. The Salzburg farmers and miners besieged the castle in 1525, but was stopped.

Count Rudolf of Raitenau, a brother of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau had, in 1607 built the west wing in a third architectural epoch. 1609, an earthquake destroyed parts of the city. A corner of the castle collapsed. 1886 a major fire destroyed the extensive castle complex. She was left to decay.

The municipality bought on 1950, the grounds and the ruins. From about 1980, the city club was active citizens who spilled freely shoveling and began renovations. Strasser family leased a part of the castle and established a castle restaurant, which opened in 1992. A citizens' initiative aroused the castle with theater performances, concerts and readings to life. The tower has been converted into a lookout tower. For those interested, guided tours available.

Saga

From a legend stating that three mercenaries are said to have looted treasures beyond. They decided to throw all the profit - two of them in the fields of four, two and five had raised, but the diced third six and five - so it fell to the prey. He bought land and people and built the castle at the lake formerly passed here, but lost it all again on the way, as he had won it.