Prägrad Castle

The castle seems to have been first documented in 1166. At that time, Konrad Burggraf of Nuremberg sold the castle to the Bishop of Bamberg. His vassal, Meginhalm von Prägrad, thereby became a Bamberg ministerialis.

At some point in the next 90 years, the Carinthian dukes must have taken over Prägrad, because in 1258 Konrad von Prägrad is referred to as a ministerialis of the Carinthian duke. In the 14th century the castle again belonged to the Bamberg diocese. In 1305 Prägrad is still referred to as a house and in 1377 already as a fortress. In this year, Friedrich Count of Ortenburg, with the consent of his episcopal liege lord, bequeathed it to Count Hermann of Cilli. After the death of Ulrich II of Cilli, the lordship fell to Emperor Frederick III in 1456.

He gave it to the Bishop of Gurk, Ulrich IV. In 1468 the bishop enfeoffed Jakob von Ernau with it. His descendants or their administrators had a comfortable castle built on the eastern shore of Lake Ossiach and left the old castle. Over time, it gradually became a ruin. Friedrich Freiherr von Herbersdorff was enfeoffed with Prägrad in 1609 by the Bishop of Gurk, Johann-Jakob, who had shortly before bought it from Ulrich von Ernau.

1628 the lordship passed to Ossiach Abbey, where it remained until the secularization at the beginning of the 19th century. Afterwards, the estate came into private peasant ownership. The ruin, together with the surrounding forests, has belonged to the Buttazoni family for decades.