Dietrichstein Castle

The castle ruin and Dietrichstein Castle are located near Feldkirchen on an important traffic route above the Glan Valley in Carinthia, which since the Middle Ages formed part of a main artery, the so-called "Venedigerstraße" (Venetian Road) between Vienna and Venice.

The first mention of the castle, named after a ministerialis knight Dietrich, the presumed builder of the castle, dates from 1103. The Dietrichsteiners were originally ministeriales of the Eppensteiner Dukes of Carinthia, until Bamberg acquired the castle and the nearby town of Feldkirchen in 1166. The bishops granted the castle to a ministerialis family who named themselves after the castle but did not own it.

The coat of arms of the Dietrichstein family was the vintner's knife, an indication of viticulture in this area during the Middle Ages. The complex was the defensive castle of the later market town of Feldkirchen and served to control the Glan Valley road. Dietrichstein was occupied by soldiers of the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, who was at war with the Bishop of Bamberg.

The castle was destroyed in 1483 during Turkish invasions.

Around 1500, a castle was built at the foot of the burg, which, after several changes of ownership, came into the possession of the Princes of Dietrichstein and was redesigned in the late Classicist style in 1840. The two-story building has served as the residential building of an agricultural enterprise since 1932.

The now ruinous castle complex is perched on a rocky slope above the Glan Valley. Parts of the Romanesque curtain wall are still preserved on the north side up to a height of approximately two meters. Furthermore, late Gothic masonry is visible on the east side. Until recently, the outline of the keep and the cistern was still discernible in the castle courtyard. On the southwest side, the rock drops steeply into the Glan Valley; the northeast side is secured by two ramparts and three moats.