Greifenburg

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Greifenburg
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Greifenburg
Location within Austria
Coordinates: 46°45′N13°11′E / 46.750°N 13.183°E / 46.750; 13.183 Coordinates: 46°45′N13°11′E / 46.750°N 13.183°E / 46.750; 13.183
Country Austria
State Carinthia
District Spittal an der Drau
Government
 •  Mayor Josef Brandner (ÖVP)
Area
[1]
 • Total76.28 km2 (29.45 sq mi)
Elevation
644 m (2,113 ft)
Population
(2018-01-01) [2]
 • Total1,736
 • Density23/km2 (59/sq mi)
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
9761
Area code 04712
Website www.greifenburg.com

Greifenburg is a market town in the district of Spittal an der Drau in the Austrian state of Carinthia.

Market town legal term for European settlement that has the right to host markets

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the Middle Ages, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city. On the European continent, a town may be correctly described as a "market town" or as having "market rights", even if it no longer holds a market, provided the legal right to do so still exists.

Bezirk Spittal an der Drau is an administrative district (Bezirk) in the state of Carinthia, Austria.

Austria Federal republic in Central Europe

Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in Central Europe comprising 9 federated states. Its capital, largest city and one of nine states is Vienna. Austria has an area of 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi), a population of nearly 9 million people and a nominal GDP of $477 billion. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The terrain is highly mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 m (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 m (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other regional languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene.

Contents

Geography

The settlement stretches in the upper Drava Valley (Drautal) between the Kreuzeck mountain range in the north, part of the High Tauern, and the Gailtal Alps in the south. From Greifenburg, a mountain road leads southwards up to the Weissensee lake and Kreuzberg Saddle pass.

Drava river in Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary

The Drava or Drave is a river in southern Central Europe. With a length of 710 kilometres (440 mi), 724 kilometres (450 mi) including the Sextner Bach source, it is the fifth or sixth longest tributary of the Danube, after the Tisza, Sava, Prut, Mureș and perhaps Siret. Its source is near the market town of Innichen, in the Puster Valley of South Tyrol, Italy. The river flows eastwards through East Tirol and Carinthia in Austria into the Styria region of Slovenia. It then turns southeast, passing through Croatia and, after merging with its main tributary Mur, forms most of the border between Croatia and Hungary, before it joins the Danube near Osijek.

Kreuzeck group mountain range

The Kreuzeck Group is a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps. It may be considered either a separate range or part of the larger High Tauern chain. Administratively, the range belongs to the Austrian states of Carinthia and, in the westernmost part, Tyrol.

High Tauern A mountain range of the eastern Alps

The High Tauern are a mountain range on the main chain of the Central Eastern Alps, comprising the highest peaks east of the Brenner Pass. The crest forms the southern border of the Austrian states of Salzburg, Carinthia and East Tyrol, with a small part in the southwest belongs to the Italian province of South Tyrol. The range includes Austria's highest mountain, the Grossglockner at 3,798 metres (12,461 ft) above the Adriatic.

The municipal area comprises the cadastral communities of Bruggen, Greifenburg proper, and Kerschbaum.

A cadastral community or cadastral municipality, is a cadastral subdivision of municipalities in the nations of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, the Italian provinces of South Tyrol, Trentino, Gorizia and Trieste, Slovenia, and the Netherlands. A cadastral community records property ownership in a cadastre, which is a register describing property ownership by boundary lines of the real estate.

History

The present-day settlement may have arisen from a mansio called Bilachium on the Roman road from Sanctium (Villach) along the Drava River up to Littamum (Innichen), at the strategically important branch-off to Kreuzberg Pass.

<i>Mansio</i> official stop on a Roman road

In the Roman Empire, a mansio was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or via, maintained by the central government for the use of officials and those on official business whilst travelling.

Villach Place in Carinthia, Austria

Villach is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It represents an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. As of January 2018, the population is 61,887.

Innichen Comune in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Italy

Innichen is a market town and comune (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy.

Greifenburg Castle Greifenburg Schloss ueber Marktplatz 16012011 115.jpg
Greifenburg Castle

Greifenburg Castle was first mentioned in an 1166 deed, then located within the lands held by the House of Gorizia (Meinhardiner); it was acquired by the Carinthian duke Bernhard von Spanheim about 1230. Duke Bernhard maintained Greifenburg, defeating the united troops of Count Meinhard I of Görz and his father-in-law Count Albert IV of Tyrol with the support from his son Archbishop Philip of Salzburg in 1252. Vested with market rights in 1267, Greifenburg nevertheless fell to the Meinhardiner dynasty, when upon the extinction of the Sponheim dynasty the Habsburg king Rudolph I of Germany enfeoffed Count Meinhard's son, Meinhard II, with the Carinthian duchy in 1286. Duke Meinhard II died at Greifenburg Castle in 1295.

House of Gorizia

The Counts of Gorizia, or Meinhardiner, were a comital dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire, originally officials in the Patriarchate of Aquileia, who ruled the County of Gorizia (Görz) from the early 12th century until the year 1500, when their territories were inherited by the Habsburg ruler Maximilian I.

Duchy of Carinthia

The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial State after the original German stem duchies.

Bernhard von Spanheim Duke of Carinthia

Bernhard von Spanheim, a member of the noble House of Sponheim, was Duke of Carinthia for 54 years from 1202 until his death. A patron of chivalry and minnesang, Bernhard's reign marked the emergence of the Carinthian duchy as an effective territorial principality.

Upon the death of Meinhard's heir Duke Henry in 1335, Greifenburg, with the Carinthian lands, passed to the Austrian House of Habsburg in 1335. In 1460, Count John II of Görz officially relinquished all claims to the town in favour of Emperor Frederick III. In 1537 the Habsburgs enfeoffed their treasurer Count Gabriel von Salamanca-Ortenburg with the estates; his heirs held Greifenburg Castle until 1626.

Henry of Bohemia Bohemian king

Henry of Carinthia, a member of the House of Gorizia (Meinhardiner), was Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Carniola as well as Count of Tyrol from 1295 until his death. He became King of Bohemia, Margrave of Moravia and titular King of Poland in 1306 and again from 1307 until 1310.

Duchy of Austria

The Duchy of Austria was a medieval principality of the Holy Roman Empire, established in 1156 by the Privilegium Minus, when the Margraviate of Austria (Ostarrîchi) was detached from Bavaria and elevated to a duchy in its own right. After the ruling dukes of the House of Babenberg became extinct in male line, there was as much as three decades of rivalry on inheritance and rulership, until the German king Rudolf I took over the dominion as the first monarch of the Habsburg dynasty in 1276. Thereafter, Austria became the patrimony and ancestral homeland of the dynasty and the nucleus of the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1453, the archducal title of the Austrian rulers, invented by Duke Rudolf IV in the forged Privilegium Maius of 1359, was officially acknowledged by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III.

John II, Count of Gorizia Count of Gorizia

John II of Gorizia was the penultimate Count of Gorizia. He ruled the County of Gorizia from 1454 until his death.

Politics

Seats in the municipal assembly (Gemeinderat) as of 2015 local elections:

Twin towns — sister cities

Greifenburg is twinned with:

Notable people

Related Research Articles

Margaret, Countess of Tyrol Countess of Tyrol

Margaret, nicknamed Margarete Maultasch, was the last Countess of Tyrol from the House of Gorizia (Meinhardiner). Upon her death, Tyrol became united with the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburg dynasty.

Meinhard, Duke of Carinthia Count of Gorizia and Tyrol, Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Carniola

Meinhard II, a member of the House of Gorizia (Meinhardiner), ruled the County of Gorizia and the County of Tyrol together with his younger brother Albert from 1258, until in 1271 they divided their heritage and Meinhard became sole ruler of Tyrol. In 1286 he was enfeoffed with the Duchy of Carinthia and the adjacent March of Carniola.

Albert I of Gorizia Count of Gorizia

Albert I, a member of the House of Gorizia, ruled the counties of Gorizia (Görz) and Tyrol from 1258, jointly with his elder brother Meinhard IV. In 1271, the brothers divided their heritage and Albert became sole ruler of the Gorizia estates until his death.

Meinhard I, Count of Gorizia-Tyrol Count of Gorizia

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Meinhard III, Count of Gorizia-Tyrol Duke of Upper Bavaria

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County of Tyrol former county of Austria

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County of Gorizia former state 1127–1747

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March of Carniola Wikimedia list article

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Sankt Veit an der Glan Place in Carinthia, Austria

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Lurnfeld Place in Carinthia, Austria

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Oberdrauburg Place in Carinthia, Austria

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Reißeck Place in Carinthia, Austria

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Finkenstein am Faaker See Place in Carinthia, Austria

Finkenstein am Faaker See is a market town in the district of Villach-Land in Carinthia, Austria.

Wernberg Place in Carinthia, Austria

Wernberg is a municipality in the district of Villach-Land in the Austrian state of Carinthia.

Counts of Ortenburg noble family

The Counts of Ortenburg were a comital family in the mediaeval Duchy of Carinthia. Though they had roots in Bavarian nobility, an affiliation with the Imperial Counts of Ortenburg, a branch line of the Rhenish Franconian House of Sponheim, is not established.

Otto III, Duke of Carinthia Count of Gorizia and Tyrol and Duke of Carinthia

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References

  1. ↑ "Dauersiedlungsraum der Gemeinden Politischen Bezirke und Bundesländer - Gebietsstand 1.1.2018". Statistics Austria. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  2. ↑ "Einwohnerzahl 1.1.2018 nach Gemeinden mit Status, Gebietsstand 1.1.2018". Statistics Austria. Retrieved 9 March 2019.


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