Burg Stein

Sankt Georgen im Lavanttal, Austria, Austria

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Burg Stein is a medieval castle ruin high above the village of Sankt Georgen im Lavanttal in Carinthia, Austria, standing on a steep, wooded rock spur (the Steinberg) about 940 metres above sea level, high above the Lavant River and the town itself.

The site is first documented in 1215 as belonging to the Archbishopric of Salzburg, then passed in 1273 to the Bishop of Lavant and from the late Middle Ages served as a summer residence for the Lavant and Salzburg bishops; it was attacked and damaged several times in the 13th and 15th centuries, including by Ulrich Kapeller in 1289 and by Leonhard von Kollnitz in 1480, and from the 18th century it gradually fell into decay.

Today the ruin is still structurally significant, with Romanesque and Gothic walls, a chapel with a barrel vault and semi‑circular apse, a long building with a Gothic vaulted cellar supported by three central pillars, and a double window in the palas, and it has been partially restored in the late 20th century; since 1979 it is owned by the Orter‑Knauder family and can be visited by prior appointment, offering a quiet, well‑preserved hill‑castle monument in the scenic Lavanttal landscape.