Albeck Castle

Albeck Castle is a stately building erected on a former castle site near Albeck in Carinthia.

Due to an imperial donation in 898, the area of Albeck in the Carinthian Gurktal came into the possession of the Counts of Friesach-Zeltschach, the ancestors of Saint Hemma, the founder of Gurk Cathedral. They built Albeck Castle in the 10th century on the steep mountainside of the narrow Gurk valley.

In 1043, Hemma donated the dominion of Albeck with its associated farms and forests to the Gurk convent, which was dissolved again in 1070. After that, Albeck was briefly owned by the Archdiocese of Salzburg and was then handed over by them to the newly founded Diocese of Gurk, which enfeoffed a secular family with it.

In 1155, Albeck Castle was mentioned for the first time in a document. In the same century, in 1194, the noble family of the Freien von Albeck died out. After an inheritance dispute with related families, the dominion of Albeck finally passed to the Diocese of Gurk in 1264.

From 1339, the office of Pfleger or castellan first existed at Albeck Castle. This official exercised jurisdiction over the peasants "to skin and hair" and "to neck and hand," demanded manual and team services, and collected the tithe.

In 1651, Pfleger Ulrich von Basayo repaired the castle, which had fallen into disrepair. However, as early as 1680, the castle was demolished, and two kilometers away, on the old Roman road towards Sirnitz, the late Baroque building, today's Albeck Castle, and an outbuilding were erected from the stones of the castle. The current entrance gate of the castle is the old castle gate. Even a stonemason's mark can still be seen in the arch.

In 1800, the servant's house was built as a Biedermeier-style building. The office of Pflegschaft lost its significance in 1848 with the liberation of the peasants. The castle then served as an episcopal forest office and later as housing for forest worker families. The building fabric gradually deteriorated.

From 1987, the revitalization of Albeck Castle took place. After almost 1000 years of ecclesiastical rule, Albeck once again came into the possession of a woman: Elisabeth Sickl bought the dilapidated building fabric, which is a protected monument, from the Diocese of Gurk and restored it.