Burgruine Gurnitz

Austria, Austria

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Burgruine Gurnitz is a ruined medieval castle above the village of Gurnitz in the municipality of Ebenthal in Kärnten, Carinthia, Austria, set on a partly artificial rock spur overlooking the old collegiate church and the landscape toward Klagenfurt.

The site originally belonged to the Archbishopric of Salzburg after being donated in 860, and a simple Romanesque castle was built there in the 11th century, giving rise to a local noble family known as the “von Gurnitz,” first documented with Bernhard von Gurnitz in 1156. 

Over the following centuries the castle passed through several hands, including the Greifenfels, Aufenstein, and later the Gera families, and by the 17th century it was already described as a ruin; in 1714 it came into the possession of Johann Peter Graf von Goëss, whose family remained the owners.