Burg Geyersberg

Friesach, Austria, Austria

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Burg Geyersberg (also spelled Geiersberg) is a medieval rock castle on a steep rocky knoll at the northern edge of the historic town of Friesach in Carinthia, Austria, overlooking the town and the surrounding valley from a dramatic elevated position.

The castle’s origins are traditionally traced to about 1130, either to Archbishop Konrad I of Salzburg or to Duke Engelhard of Carinthia in a conflict with Bishop Hiltebold of Gurk, and it was first mentioned in 1271; from the 13th century it was closely linked to the Salzburg “Vizedomamt” (the administrative office of the archbishopric) and became an important part of Friesach’s defensive system, integrated with the town walls.

The core of the castle consists of a large, five-storey Romanesque bergfried (tower) on a square base, surrounded by a crenellated ring wall with a Zwinger (outer protective wall) and three gates, and on the southern side lies the late Gothic chapel of Saint Anna, built around 1400 above an inner ring gate, together with Renaissance portals, medieval wall paintings from the late 14th century, and late 16th-century wooden ceilings with carved diamond patterns.