Burgruine Silberberg

Austria, Austria

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Burgruine Silberberg is a ruined hill castle in Carinthia, Austria, standing on a rocky, wooded hilltop about three kilometres north of St. Martin am Silberberg (a village in the municipality of Hüttenberg), roughly 1,138 m above sea level, close to the Styrian border.

The site was originally a north‑facing defensive barrier in an area already known in prehistoric and Roman times for its silver and iron mining, and the noble family of Silberberg, branches of the Karlsbergers, is first mentioned in 1214 as lords of the castle; they retained the fortress until the line died out in 1756, after which the property changed hands and the castle gradually fell into ruin.

In Valvasor’s 1688 description the castle still stood as a complete palace with a Romanesque Bergfried, two residential buildings set at an angle, and a separate gate; in the 16th century it was rebuilt as a larger Renaissance castle over the medieval remains, but since the mid‑18th century it has been in decay, and today only scattered wall fragments from the Romanesque and Gothic periods survive, heavily overgrown and protected as a monument, with no significant tourist facilities or preserved structures to visit.