Hochosterwitz

Hochosterwitz
Sankt Georgen, Carinthia, Austria
General view
Type	Rock castle
Height	664m.
Site information
Owner	Khevenhüller noble family
Open to the public	April–October
Condition	restored
Site history
Built	c. 860
Built by	Osterwitz dynasty

Hochosterwitz Castle (German: Burg Hochosterwitz, Slovene: Grad Ostrovica) is considered to be one of Austria's most impressive medieval castles. It is on a 172-metre (564 ft) high Dolomite rock near Sankt Georgen am Längsee, east of the town of Sankt Veit an der Glan in Carinthia. The rock castle is one of the state's landmarks and a major tourist attraction.

Hochosterwitz is 664 metres (2,178 ft) above sea level on the rim of the historic Zollfeld plain north of Magdalensberg, about 7 km (4.3 mi) east of Sankt Veit. It can be seen from a distance of up to 30 km (19 mi) on a clear day.

A settlement site since the Bronze Age, the rock was first mentioned in an 860 deed issued by Louis the German, King of East Francia, donating several of his properties in the former principality of Carantania to the Archdiocese of Salzburg. It was then named ‘Astarwiza’, its name being of Slavic origin. It remained a Salzburg possession, until in the 11th century Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg ceded the castle to the descendants of Count Siegfried of Sponheim in return for their support during the Investiture Controversy. After Siegfried's grandson Henry IV became Duke of Carinthia in 1122, the Sponheim rulers were able to shake off the Salzburg overlordship. Later they bestowed the fiefdom upon the ministeriales of the Osterwitz noble family, possibly a cadet branch of the Sponheim dynasty. In 1209 one Herman of Osterwitz, who held the hereditary office of the cup-bearer at the ducal court in Sankt Veit, accompanied Duke Bernhard of Carinthia to the coronation of Emperor Otto IV in Rome.

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