Burgruine Twimberg

Austria, Austria

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Burgruine Twimberg is the ruined hill castle located above the village of Twimberg in the municipality of Bad St. Leonhard in the Lavanttal valley of Carinthia, Austria.

It sits on a strategic point at the mouth of the Waldensteiner Graben where this side valley enters the narrow Lavanttal, allowing it to control both the valley road and the route over the Packsattel into Styria, and its name is thought to derive from “Zwingburg,” meaning a commanding or “zwinging” fortress.

The castle and surrounding lands were first mentioned in connection with a royal gift to the Archbishop of Salzburg in 931, though the earliest secure written reference to the castle itself comes from 1245, when a local noble, Wolfker von Twimberg, is named, and it gradually became an important ecclesiastical stronghold under the bishops of the region.

Between the 13th and 16th centuries the fortress was repeatedly rebuilt and expanded, especially under Bishop Dietrich of Lavant, who constructed a large tower (Bergfried) and renewed the surrounding ring wall, and the complex later included a main castle in the southeast, an extensive outer court, and a separate fortified tower about 300 meters to the northeast built around 1320 with a square plan, very thick walls and a height of about 14 meters.