| Gewerkenegg Castle | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Location |  Idrija, Slovenia |
| Coordinates | 46°00′03″N14°01′07″E / 46.0007°N 14.0185°E |
| Completed | 16th century |
Gewerkenegg Castle (Slovene : Grad Gewerkenegg) is a castle in downtown Idrija, Slovenia. Originally built to support the mercury mine, it now facilitates the town's museum.
With the discovery of mercury in Idrija at the end of the 15th century, mining-related activities soon began to predominantly shape the town and its surrounding areas. Gewerkenegg Castle was constructed between 1522 and 1533 by the mine owners in order to support the mining activities. Its name was derived from German to describe a 'mining castle'. Unlike most other castles from the same era, Gewerkenegg Castle never served feudal or military purposes, nor was used as a residence for nobility. Its primary role was to be a warehouse for storing the mined mercury and to provide office space for the mine administration. It served as a warehouse until a dedicated storage facility was built in the town at the end of the 18th century. Presently it is one of the oldest buildings in Idrija and it facilitates the municipal museum. The museum was opened in 1953 and spreads over almost 2,000 m2 of the castle interior. [1] [2]
The castle is located on a small hill in the western side of the town. Its structure is roughly of a rectangular shape, with three defensive towers positioned in the north-west, north-east and south-east corners. The south side borders on a steep cliff adjacent to Nikova stream, therefore the south-east corner has no tower and is simply an enlarged section of joining walls. The corners are connected by walls that also contain the main rooms. A clock tower is located in the middle of the east wall. A small tributary stream of Nikova borders the north side of the castle. The castle has two entrances: the one on the east side is accessed by stairs and a bridge over the tributary stream, and the one on the west side is accessed from the road and leads directly into the courtyard.
The Thuringian Forest is a mountain range in the southern parts of the German state of Thuringia, running northwest to southeast. Skirting from its southerly source in foothills to a gorge on its north-west side is the Werra valley. On the other side of the Forest is an upper outcrop of the North German Plain, the Thuringian Basin, which includes the city Erfurt. The south and south-east continuation of the range is the highland often called the Thuringian-Vogtlandian Slate Mountains.
Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the Elster and Ore Mountains, stretching from Plauen in the southwest via Zwickau, Chemnitz and Freiberg to Dresden in the northeast. It sits on the Freiberger Mulde, a tributary of the Mulde River. It is a Große Kreisstadt, and the administrative seat of Landkreis Mittelsachsen. Freiberg is connected to Dresden by the S3 line of the Dresden S-Bahn.
Almadén is a town and municipality in the spanish province of Ciudad Real, within the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. The town is located at 4° 49' W and 38° 46' N and is 589 meters above sea level. Almadén is approximately 300 km south of Madrid in the Sierra Morena. The name Almadén is from the Arabic: المعدن, romanized: al-maʻdin, lit. 'the metal', 'the mineral' or 'lode', and so by extension, the place where these are excavated, 'the mine'. Originally a Roman, and later, a Moorish mining settlement when taken from the Visigoths, the town was captured by the Christians in 1151 under king Alfonso VII and given to the Knights of the Order of Calatrava.
Salgótarján is a city with county rights in Hungary, the capital of Nógrád county, north-eastern Hungary, making it the third smallest county capital based on population. Nearby Salgó Castle is a well-known tourist attraction.
Idrija is a town in western Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Idrija. Located in the traditional region of the Slovene Littoral and in the Gorizia Statistical Region, it is notable for its mercury mine with stores and infrastructure, as well as miners' living quarters, and a miners' theatre. Together with the Spanish mine at Almadén, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012. In 2011, Idrija was given the Alpine Town of the Year award.
Haltwhistle is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, 23 miles east of Carlisle and 37 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It had a population of 3,811 at the 2011 Census.
Montagnana is a town and comune in the province of Padova, in Veneto. Neighbouring communes are Borgo Veneto, Casale di Scodosia, Urbana, Bevilacqua, Pojana Maggiore, Pressana, Minerbe and Roveredo di Guà. As of 2017, the population of Montagnana is 9120. The town was awarded with the Bandiera arancione and is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia.
New Idria was an unincorporated town in San Benito County, California. It was named after the New Idria Mercury Mine, which closed in 1972, resulting in a ghost town.
Rýmařov is a town in Bruntál District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,900 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.
Geyer is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. It has a population of about 4,000.
Hermann Castle, also known as the Narva castle or Narva fortress, is a medieval castle in the city of Narva, in northeastern Estonia. The castle was established around 1256, when the area was part of the Danish Realm. The first entirely stone fortifications were built in the beginning of the 14th century. The Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order purchased the castle in August 1346, and owned it for much of its later history.
Alloue is a commune in the Charente department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France.
Velenje Castle is a well-preserved castle in Velenje, Slovenia that was owned by the Kunšperk family, followed by their Ptuj relatives and the Lichtenberg family. The castle houses a museum of art and culture.
Dally Castle is a ruined 13th-century stone motte-and-bailey fortress in Northumberland, and one of the first hall houses in Northumberland. It lies 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Bellingham Castle, and 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Bellingham on the Chirdon Burn, a tributary of the North Tyne. Dally Castle House was built in the 18th century next to the castle. Across the road lies a small flour mill used to grind wheat during the Napoleonic War.
Southampton's town walls are a sequence of defensive structures built around the town in southern England. Although earlier Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlements around Southampton had been fortified with walls or ditches, the later walls originate with the move of the town to the current site in the 10th century. This new town was defended by banks, ditches and the natural curve of the river and coastline. The Normans built a castle in Southampton but made no attempts to improve the wider defences of the town until the early 13th century, when Southampton's growing prosperity as a trading centre and conflict with France encouraged the construction of a number of gatehouses and stone walls to the north and east sides of the settlement.
Novo Brdo Fortress is a medieval Serbian fortress in Kosovo. Its ruins are located near the town of Novo Brdo, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Pristina. The fortress was built in the late 13th century by king Stephen Uroš II Milutin of Serbia to protect gold, silver, iron and lead mines which were abundant throughout the area. Novo Brdo was famous for its silver. Together with the castles of Prizren, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) to the southwest, and Prilepac, 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) to the southeast, which guard access roads to the fortress, Novo Brdo helped form a defensive complex overlooking the lucrative mining operations. Novo Brdo was at its height during the Serbian Despotate (1402–1459), when it was the most important mining area and second most important town in Serbia. A significant number of Saxon miners, Albanian Catholics and a large Ragusan merchant colony lived within the town, which was ruled by a vojvoda, but also a governor (kefalija), because it was the seat of an administrative unit of the Despotate.
Pogragja Fortress is a fortress located near village of Pogragjë, 10 kilometers south-east of Gjilan, Kosovo. It was built on a hill overlooking the confluence of a stream in Morava e Binçës and dates back to 6th century.
The 1511 Idrija earthquake occurred on 26 March 1511 with a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum EMS intensity of X. The epicenter was near the town of Idrija, although some place it in Friuli. The earthquake affected a large territory between Carinthia, Friuli, present-day Slovenia and Croatia. An estimated 3,000 people were killed and damage was considered severe. The earthquake was felt as far as in Switzerland and present-day Slovakia. A number of castles and churches were razed to the ground in a large area from northeast Italy to western Croatia.
The Castle of Portel is a medieval castle located in the municipality of Portel in the district of Evora in Portugal.
Nikova is a stream in western Slovenia and the second left tributary of the river Idrijca. The confluence of Nikova and Idrijca is in Idrija. It originates southeast of Rejec Hill near the hamlet of Kočevše, which is part of the Čekovnik settlement. From its source, it flows for about 1.5 km through a gorge in SE direction and then changes direction to NE for approximately 1.5 km. The lower part of the flow goes for another 1.5 km through the center of Idrija in a man-made concrete channel until it meets the Idrijca River.
| Settlements | Administrative seat: Idrija |  |
|---|---|---|
| Landmarks | ||
| Notable people | ||
