Burgruine Flaschberg

Austria, Austria

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Burgruine Flaschberg is the ruin of a medieval fortified castle on a rocky ledge above the village of Flaschberg, a small road village about 3 km west of Oberdrauburg in Carinthia, Austria, from which it took its name and from which the noble family of the Flaschberger emerged.

It was first mentioned in 1154 as “Flassinperc” and was strategically positioned to guard the pass road from the Drau valley into the Gail and Lesach valleys; for centuries the local lords of Flaschberg served the Counts of Görz and became increasingly involved in diplomatic missions, acquiring lands in the Puster Valley, around Lienz, and in Friuli, while the castle itself passed to the Counts of Görz and then, after the 1460 Peace of Pusarnitz, to imperial administrators, losing its original owners’ influence.

The castle was a substantial Romanesque fortified complex with three towers standing side by side, but today only one of these, most likely the main tower (bergfried), remains, rising about 18 meters on a 10-meter square base, built from carefully worked rubble with ashlar tuff corners and featuring a high round-arched entrance on the northwestern side and another round-arched opening on the northeastern side flanked by two narrow slit windows, while the remains of the palace (palas) and curtain walls are very fragmentary and the Burgkapelle dedicated to St. John the Baptist, mentioned in 1521, has left no visible trace.