Burgruine Ortenburg

Austria, Austria

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Burgruine Ortenburg is a ruined medieval hill castle in Baldramsdorf, Carinthia, Austria, situated on the northern slope of Mount Goldeck in the Gailtal Alps at an elevation of about 740 metres, overlooking the Drava (Drau) valley west of Spittal an der Drau.

The fortress was begun between 1070 and 1096 by Adalbert, the Freising bishop’s ministerial (Vizedom) in the Lurngau, and completed by his son Otto, who first appears in 1141 as Count of Ortenburg, making Ortenburg the centre of one of the most powerful noble families in Carinthia. The castle is a twin fortress divided into several courtyards, with two drawbridges, a Romanesque Bergfried (keep), a Gothic outer bailey, and in the third courtyard a Romanesque–Gothic castle chapel, a further tower and the Palas (residential building), and its earliest documentary mention is from 1136.

Like many Carinthian castles, it was damaged or destroyed by the large earthquake of 1348, and in 1687 a violent storm followed by another earthquake turned the already neglected site into a ruin; for centuries it remained hidden in the forest until the association “Helfer der Ortenburg – 1. Kärntner Handwerksmuseum” cleared, secured and refurbished it, making the ruins accessible to the public in 1976.