Sevnica Castle

Sevnica Castle is a Slovenian castle in the Lower Sava Valley. Situated atop a hill, it dominates the old town of Sevnica and offers views of the surrounding countryside.

The Archdiocese of Salzburg held local estates since 1043 and Sevnica Castle was mentioned for the first time in its record in 1309 like “Castellum" Lichtenwald. The origin of the building was not documented but it was most probably built during the bishopric of Konrad the First von Abensberg (1106–1147), who rebuilt and colonized this area devastated by Hungarian invasions in the 10th century and in the beginning of the 12th century. We know nothing even about the appearance of the building at that time. The only remaining part of the building from that period, which has survived until this day, is the part of a tower nowadays included in the left wing of the castle. This tower did not stand by itself; it was probably part of a larger building. From the thickness of its walls (2.6 metres (8.5 ft)) it is believed to have been four or five storeys tall.

The office of the Archdiocese of Salzburg had been in the castle until 1479 when was appointed Archbishop Bernard the Second von Rohr, who came into conflict with the Emperor Frederick the Third. During the ensuing war, Bernard established alliance with the governor of Hungary Matthias Hunyady – Corvinus and he resigned to his custody not only Sevnica Castle with the belonging manor but also many other present-day Slovenian castles in Styria and Carinthia. Matthias Hunyady, whose army thereafter occupied considerable part of the Slovenian ethnic territory, was very popular with simple folk. Thanks to this, many stories about him were passed on by oral tradition and so he became Slovenian legendary King Matthias. After his death, the Peace of Bratislava in 1491 concluded the war and Sevnica Castle with its manor then became the possession of the emperor, but the new Emperor Maximilian the First returned it in 1494 to the Archdiocese of Salzburg.

Dr. Viktor Tiller published a handbook in 1938 titled "Sevnica in okolica" (Sevnica and Its Environs) in which he claimed that the castle had been in the Middle Ages connected by an underground tunnel with Lower Castle in Sevnica and that the inhabitants of the town had been using this tunnel as a hiding place during Turkish invasions. However, there is no historical evidence to confirm these claims and Sevnica has never been the victim of Turkish invasion, so it goes without saying that this story is a legend.

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Wikipedia