Raabs Castle

The earliest settlement in the Raabs area is evidenced by a castle complex discovered in 1992 in the Sand district. Dendrochronological data from the northern wall confirm the fortification and settlement of a 0.7-hectare area between 926 and 929. This complex, likely a fortified Slavic settlement, was abandoned after only a few decades following a fire, possibly caused by Hungarian raids. Written sources for Burg Raabs only begin around 1100, when a lord of the castle, “Gotfridi admissus in castrum Racouz,” is mentioned in Cosmas of Prague's chronicle. The castle played a role in the 11th-century conflicts in the Bohemian-Moravian region. Gottfried II of Raabs harbored a Moravian Přemyslid, which led to a siege of the castle by Duke Bratislaus of Bohemia.