Landskron Castle (Carinthia)

Landskron Castle
Burg Landskron
Carinthia, Austria
Type	Hill castle
Site information
Owner	Private
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Ruin
Site history
Built	Early 14th century

Landskron Castle (German: Burg Landskron, Slovene: Grad Vajškra) is a medieval hill castle northeast of Villach in the state of Carinthia, Austria. Dating to the early 14th century, the castle ruins are located on a rock cone of the Ossiach Tauern range, at an elevation of 658 metres (2,159 ft) above sea level. Today Landskron Castle, its falconry centre conducting regular flying demonstrations, and the nearby macaque enclosure are major tourist destinations.

Settled since the Hallstatt era, the estates around Lake Ossiach were first mentioned in an 878 deed issued by the East Frankish king Carloman of Bavaria, who granted them to the monastery of Altötting he had established shortly before. About 1024 the area was among the Carinthian possessions of one Count Ozi of the Chiemgau, probably a scion of the Otakar dynasty, who founded Ossiach Abbey nearby. A castle already existed, when in 1330 the estates were acquired by the Counts of Ortenburg.

Landskron itself was first mentioned in 1351, when the Habsburg duke Albert II of Austria, also Carinthian duke since 1335, purchased the fortress and had it rebuilt as an important stronghold within the Carinthian possessions of the Bamberg prince-bishops. Later, the Habsburg rulers temporarily gave it in pawn to Count Hermann II of Celje, heir of the Ortenburg dynasty in 1418, and the Lords of Stubenberg. In 1511 Emperor Maximilian bestowed the estate to the Knightly Order of Saint George at Millstatt, while the fortress decayed.

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