Burgruine Sonnegg

Austria, Austria

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Burgruine Sonnegg is the ruined medieval hill castle located on a wooded hill called the Schlossberg about 100 m above the settlement of Sonnegg in the municipality of Sittersdorf in Carinthia, southern Austria.

It was first mentioned in 1267 as “castrum Iounek” and, in its heyday, became one of the largest and most important castles in Carinthia, with a complex that from Romanesque times through the Renaissance was continuously expanded and eventually had seven towers. The castle was promoted as a landesfürstliche (royal) stronghold, entrusted to local noble families such as the Sonnegg branch of the Heunburger-Pfannberger circle, and later given to Hans I.

Ungnad von Weißenwolff in 1444, whose family held it until 1622 when it passed by inheritance to the House of Hesse, and then in 1639 to Johann Andreas von Rosenberg, whose descendants are still connected with the site today. Despite its solid condition into the late 17th century, with a full residential and defensive structure, the castle was devastated in 1690 by a severe earthquake followed by a major fire, and rather than rebuild the ruined fortress, the owners instead developed the agricultural estate at the foot of the hill into the present Schloss Sonnegg, while the old hilltop castle was left to the local population as a stone quarry, which accelerated its decay.