Burgruine Rauchenkatsch

Austria, Austria

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Burgruine Rauchenkatsch (also simply Rauchenkatsch) is a lost medieval rock castle in Carinthia, Austria, once located on a steep rock above the Lieser River in the Katsch Valley near Krems in Kärnten, close to the Katschberg Pass.

It was built at the behest of the Archbishops of Salzburg to guard the important historic trade route across the Katschberg and for a period served as a Salzburg local court seat (Landgericht), controlling movement of travellers and goods between the eastern Alps and Carinthia. The fortress was first mentioned in 1197 as castrum chaetze, possibly rebuilt after damage from an earthquake in 1201, and later declined in significance; it was sold by Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau in 1605.

Gradually fell into decay, with its last remaining structures finally destroyed in 1967 during road-widening work for the Tauern Autobahn / federal road 99 after an landslip. Today Rauchenkatsch exists only as an archaeological site and place name; no visible castle remains stand, but the location is known as a historic landmark of the Katsachtal and is associated with the nearby towns of Krems, Rennweg am Katschberg, and Innerkrems, and with the broader network of Salzburg and Carinthian fortifications that guarded the mountain routes of the Eastern Alps.