Sternberg Castle

The history of the castle dates back to the 12th century and is closely linked to that of the Counts of Heunburg. Between 1170 and 1180, Ulrich von Heunberg was mentioned in documents, who was called Count of Sternberg from 1267 onwards.

In 1311, Countess Katharina von Sternberg sold the castle to Duke Henry VI of Carinthia, who returned it to her as a fief. Count Walther the Younger, the last male Sternberg, sold the lordship in 1329 to Count Otto von Ortenburg, probably with the consent of the feudal lord. When the Counts of Ortenburg died out in 1418, the Habsburgs inherited the Ortenburg estates based on a will from 1377.

King Sigismund, disregarding the feudal rights of the Carinthian dukes, granted the castle in 1420 to Count Hermann II of Cilli. Count Ulrich of Cilli gave Sternberg to Jan Witowetz as a life annuity. The latter was subsequently enfeoffed with the Sternberg fortress by Emperor Frederick III. When war broke out over the Cilli inheritance between Emperor Frederick III and the Gorizians, the fortress, like Hohenwart, was destroyed by the Emperor's troops around 1456 and not rebuilt. The Emperor united Sternberg with the lordship of Landskron and gave it to the Order of St. George. After the dissolution of the knightly order, the Sternberg ruin fell back to the Habsburgs. Emperor Ferdinand I sold it in 1545 to Bernhard Khevenhüller.

After various owners, the Hippel family bought the complex in 1938. The former keep, whose walls are still visible up to ground floor height, now form the substructure of the residential house.