Ruine Spangstein Ahnherrnschloss: A Medieval Castle Ruin in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.1
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Austria
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Styria, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page8 sections
History
Ruine Spangstein Ahnherrnschloss is a medieval castle ruin in Austria, near Schwanberg in Styria, probably built around the middle of the thirteenth century. Its founder was likely Erchenger of Spangstein, a ministerial, meaning a medieval service noble who carried out administrative, military, or court duties for a higher-ranking lord. Erchenger is first recorded in 1255. The castle formed part of a chain of fortified sites around Schwanberg that guarded crossings over the Koralm, a mountain range in the southeastern Alps.
The Spangstein and Galler lordships
In 1501, the Spangstein family acquired both the castle and the lordship of Schwanberg. During the religious conflicts of the sixteenth century, the Habsburgs reclaimed the lordship. The Habsburgs were a major European ruling dynasty, and in this region Archduke Charles of Inner Austria governed territories centered on Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. In 1576, he sold the lordship to the Galler family.
The Gallers supported the Protestant side during the continuing disputes with the Catholic Habsburg rulers. Conflict damaged the lordship, including its Protestant school, cemetery, and chapel, which were destroyed in 1600. A severe earthquake affected the surrounding area in 1602. The precise cause of Spangstein’s eventual ruin remains uncertain.
Abandonment and later protection
Georg von Spangstein, the last member of the Spangstein family, died in Nuremberg in 1651. After further changes of ownership and border disputes between the lordships of Schwanberg and Deutschlandsberg, the ruin and the other Spangstein properties in Styria passed to the related Counts of Trautmannsdorf in 1685. The castle was no longer used and continued to decay.
Local tradition connects the castle with a cruel legend about a lord’s daughter who refused an arranged marriage and was killed by her father. Spangstein is protected as a monument. In 2009, the Altburg Committee of Bad Schwanberg undertook emergency conservation of the surviving remains while also investigating the remains of the older Schwanberg castle at Tanzboden.
Remains
Hilltop setting and enclosure
The ruin occupies a rocky ridge at about 570 metres above sea level in the Stullneggraben, approximately 4.8 kilometres northwest of Bad Schwanberg. The ridge projects westward into the Stullneggbach valley. Rock faces and steep slopes protect the site on every side except the west, where a ditch separates the castle from the surrounding ground.
Surviving fortifications
Gate tower wall
Only one substantial wall remnant survives from the formerly powerful castle. Positioned east of the ditch, it is about 1.5 metres thick and consists of layered rubble-stone masonry. Documentary and archaeological evidence place its construction in the thirteenth century. The remnant is generally identified as a gate tower, although it has also been interpreted as a keep. The other castle buildings decayed or were destroyed by treasure hunters.
Outer defensive wall
Wall remains south of the surviving tower are interpreted as parts of a zwinger, an outer defensive enclosure positioned beyond a principal fortification. Descriptions from the beginning of the twentieth century also suggest that a round tower may once have stood just above the eastern end of the rocky spur.
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