Sevnica Castle
Sevnica Castle is one of the most beautiful Slovenian castles in the Sava River valley. Picturesquely situated on the top of the hill it dominates views of the old town Sevnica and offers a magnificent vantage point from which to view the surrounding countryside.
History
The Archdiocese of Salzburg held local estates since 1043 and Sevnica Castle was mentioned for the first time in its record in 1309 like “Castellum" Lichtenwald.[1] The origin of the building was not known but it was most probably built during the bishopric of Konrad the First von Abensberg (1106 - 1147), who rebuilt and colonized this area devastated by Hungarian invasions in the 10th century and in the beginning of the 12th century.[2] We know nothing even about the appearance of the building at that time. The only remaining part of the building from that period, which has survived until this day, is the part of a tower nowadays included in the left wing of the castle. This tower did not stand by itself, it was most probably the part of a larger building and with regard to the thickness of its walls (2,6 m; 8,5 ft) we could surmise that it was four or five storeys high.
The office of Salzburg Archdiocese had been in the castle until 1479 when was appointed Archbishop Bernard the Second von Rohr, who came into conflict with the Emperor Frederick the Third. During the ensuing war, Bernard established alliance with the governor of Hungary Matthias Hunyady - Corvinus and resigned to his custody many nowadays Slovenian castles in Carinthia and Styria, with Sevnica Castle among them.[3] Matthias Hunyady was very popular with simple folk, many stories about him were passed on by oral tradition and he became Slovenian legendary King Matthias owing to this. After his death, the Peace of Bratislava in 1491 concluded the war and Sevnica Castle with the belonging estate then became the possession of the emperor, but the new Emperor Maximilian the First returned it in 1494 to Salzburg Archdiocese.[4]
Dr. Viktor Tiller published a handbook in 1938 titled "Sevnica in okolica" (Sevnica and Its Environs). He claimed in it that the castle had been in the Middle Ages connected by an underground tunnel with Lower Castle in Sevnica and that the inhabitants of the town had been using this tunnel as a hiding place during Turkish invasions.[5] However, there is no historical evidence to confirm these claims and Sevnica has never been the victim of Turkish invasion, so this story is obviously a legend.
In the middle of the 16th century was built at the southeast side of the Castle Hill so called Lutheran Cellar. There is no evidence about the origin of this building but we can determine the time of its construction according to architectural style. The interior of it embellish frescos dating from the second half of the 16th century which depict motifs from the Bible and are one of the finest surviving paintings in Slovenia from that period. This by appearance flat and featureless farm building had been certainly designed for performing acts of worship as a clandestine Lutheran chapel whereby two questions arose: who built Lutheran conventicle at the castle grounds owned by Salzburg Archdiocese and if any of the castle administrators at that time was a Protestant.[6] However, there is preserved the tombstone in the parish church in Sevnica from the family vault of the castle administrator Oswald Geriacher. He died on June 2nd 1575. The tombstone depicts him and his wife Dorothea kneeling in front of the crucifix. One of the fundamentals of Lutheran religion is the belief that the humankind can gain redemption owing to Christ's death on the cross,[7] and this kind of motif is a characteristic of Lutheran tombstones, while the Catholics prefer the motif of a patron saint.[8] Therefore, the castle administrator Geriacher was obviously a Protestant and most probably he erected Lutheran Cellar.
There was no national awareness at that time, and at nowadays Slovenian territory German Protestants worked hand in hand with Slovenian Protestants who raised Slovenian language in the 16th century among written languages and gave this nation the earliest literary works. Among the most prominent Slovenian Protestants was Jurij Dalmatin, who was the first translator of the Bible in Slovenian language and native from Krško so it was quite probable that he occasionally visited Lutheran Cellar in Sevnica. The central figure among Slovenian Protestants was Primož Trubar, who was from 1530 until 1542 a parish priest at St. Helen’s Parish at Loka near Zidani Most, but Lutheran Cellar was erected latter.
In consequence of the tyranny and oppression of the nobles, the rebellion of Croatian and Slovenian peasantry broke out in 1572. The group of about six hundred insurgents under the leadership of Ilija Gregorić came on February 5th 1573 in Sevnica.[9] The castle was at that time in the hands of the tenant Baron Bolthazar von Lamberg,[10] who invited the rebellious peasants in the castle and treated them to a feast. He thus spared the castle from demolition, since the peasants set out soon after and pursued their rebellious journey towards Lisca. Yet the baron would certainly not avert this impending danger this way had he not shown kindness to his own peasants before.
There had been no evidence about the development of Sevnica Castle building until 1595, so we could not know how the castle looked like when Innocenz Moscon bought it in this year. The family Moscon, who acquired considerable wealth by skilful trading, was of Italian origin and they possessed also many other nowadays Slovenian castles: Krško Castle, Podsreda Castle, Ortnek Castle, Pišece Castle, and others. The matters about the purchase of Sevnica Castle were not clear and Innocenz incurred long litigation for the recognition of the ownership. However, when the conflict was finally resolved in 1637, the castle remained the property of Salzburg Archdiocese, while Moscons obtained the right of hereditary tenure.[11] Innocenz rebuilt the castle between 1595 and 1597 in then contemporary Late-Renaissance style and gave it thus its present form. The medieval tower remained practically untouched and was included in the east residential wing. Innocenz was a stern Catholic so he turned Lutheran Cellar into his family vault in which he and his wife Anna were buried.[12]
The castle remained the ownership of Salzburg Archdiocese until 1803, but in the meantime, the family Auersperg inherited the tenure in 1675, then the family Drašković in 1688, in 1725 again Auersperg and in 1769 the family Keglević.[13]
One of the fresco paintings in the church of St. Lawrence at the village Žabjek depicts the fire at the castle ignited during a thunderstorm in 1778 by a stroke of lightning at the watchtower standing west of the castle.[14] This fresco is the last preserved representation of the castle with its mediaeval tower rising above the rest of the building. The tower was most probably levelled with the east residential wing soon after the fire.
Annals recorded another atmospheric turmoil on June 26th 1801, when a raging hailstorm accompanied by gale-force winds devastated this area. At Sevnica Castle, it broke all window-panes, uncovered two corner-towers and another building standing beside the castle while two people were fatally injured.[15]
This same year from February 2nd to May 7th, the so-called German Infantry Regiment under the command of the colonel Durand was stationed at Sevnica . The sergeant Johann Michael Fischer native of Malterdingen in Baden commited a homicide here and was, after a trial in Sevnica Castle, on March 12th shot in the presence of the whole regiment.[16]
Roughly two years later, on June 1st 1803,[17] Count Johann Händl von Rebenburg became the proprietor of Sevnica Castle. He rearranged the nearby exterior of it: he lowered the battlements, filled in the moats, planted the trees in the park around the castle and made a vineyard with terraces at the south side of the castle hill.[18] Among the citizens of Sevnica have been preserved by oral transmission some local legends about the generosity of Count Händl and about his beautiful park laid out in Renaissance-Baroque style. It is also preserved the land-register from 1825 incorporating the ground plan of the castle and its park.
In the 19th century, some alterations were also made to Lutheran Cellar. There are still visible stony supports at the façade of it, which have once most probably born a pergola. It was impossible to find out, when was this pergola removed, but in the 19th century, a wine cellar, with its roof propped by these supports, was built at the courtyard.[19]
In the second half of the 19th century, the castle changed many owners. Among them was Dr. Karel Ausserer, who bought it in 1880 and built at the north side of the castle hill the road to the castle.[20]
Between 1910 and 1945, the proprietress of Sevnica Castle was Countess Matilda Arco Zinneberg. She used Lutheran Cellar again as the burial place; she buried her husband Arthur Tränkel and their daughter Kitty in it. The citizens of Sevnica preserved in their memory that the castle contained many antiquities and other valuable things at that time, but during the Second World War, the Countess left the castle with all its fabulous wealth in hands of an administrator and moved to Italy.
As many other castles in Slovenia, even Sevnica Castle was nationalized after the war and the precious furniture, which remained untouched until then, vanished. Poor families without apartments of their own were accommodated in the castle and they contributed to the ruination of its property. The park was in a state of total neglect and nobody cared about the vineyard anymore, so even the wine cellar beside Lutheran Cellar was not needed and was removed.
The attitudes towards this kind of legacy slowly changed in the sixties. The poor families were gradually removed from the castle and it began receiving new contents. The consciousness about the importance of Lutheran Cellar was also awakening and its frescos were between 1963 and 1973 restored. At that time, Baroque fresco paintings depicting gallant motifs of four seasons were discovered in the southeast tower of the castle. Slovenian art historian Ivan Komelj has dated them into the 17th century.[21] They were restored between 1977 and 1979.
Sevnica castle today
When the past is well known to us, then we can easily recognize its traces all around us, and at Sevnica Castle, the past has left many traces. We shall easily discern under the crumbling plaster of the outer east castle wall Late-Romanesque styled cornerstones of the tower, which are the traces of the earliest, medieval period of the castle. A German inscription in Gothic lettering above the portal of the castle door, which says that patience overcomes everything, reminds us about the times when Innocenz Moscon has found support in this phrase during his endless litigation for the recognition of the ownership of the castle in which appearance he has left an indelible mark. A Roman tombstone representing a couple in a medallion is built in the wall at the right side of the doorway. Count Johann Händl von Rebenburg had brought it here from Ajdovski gradec,[22] while, sad to say, at his once famous park and gardens the decades of neglect left heartbreaking traces. Some of the vines, which he had planted at the south side of the castle hill, were still growing in the seventies of the twentieth century but they were completely overgrown by inextricable brambles then. The south side of the castle hill was cleared in 2005 and at the terraces were planted fruit trees. The park around the castle is still in very bad shape. An ambitious plan for its restoration in accordance with the land-register from 1825 had been made already in 1966 but it was not accomplished yet.
The interior of the castle also abounds in the reminders of past centuries. The heart of the castle is the lordly second floor of the south wing, which is sumptuously appointed with Neo-Renaissance furnishings mostly from the 19th century. We will find here the conference hall and the wedding hall, while on the second floor of the southeast tower can be found already mentioned Baroque frescos. An important reminder of the past is also a Renaissance-Baroque private chapel on the first floor of the southwest tower incorporating also the altar of St. George from 1637. There can be also found in the castle regular exhibitions of academic painter Alojz Konc, the School Museum, the Fire-fighting Museum, the Exile Museum and the Ornamental Arts Gallery of Ivan Razboršek. Lutheran Cellar is famous nowadays for its fine acoustics and as a result, various concerts and other performances take place in it.
Sevnica Castle and Lutheran Cellar have thus become an important centre of culture and the main tourist attraction of Sevnica.
References
- ^ Ivan STOPAR, Grajske stavbe v Vzhodni Sloveniji, peta knjiga, Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save (Ljubljana, 1993), 119.
- ^ Ivan KOMELJ, Sevniški grad in Lutrovska klet, Kulturni in naravni spomeniki Slovenije 20 (ljubljana, 1969), 4.
- ^ Hans PIRCHEGGER, Untersteiermark in der Geschichte ihrer Herrschaften un Gülten, Städte und Märkte (München, 1962), 255.
- ^ Ivan STOPAR, Grajske stavbe v Vzhodni Sloveniji, peta knjiga, Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save (Ljubljana, 1993), 119.
- ^ Viktor TILLER, Sevnica in okolica (Ljubljana, 1938), 6.
- ^ Ivan KOMELJ, Sevniški grad in Lutrovska klet, Kulturni in naravni spomeniki Slovenije 20 (ljubljana, 1969), 12-13.
- ^ France STELE, "Vloga reformacije v naši umetnostni zgodovini", Drugi Trubarjev zbornik, ed. Mirko Rupel (Ljubljana, 1952), 146
- ^ France STELE, "Vloga reformacije v naši umetnostni zgodovini'", Drugi Trubarjev zbornik, ed. Mirko Rupel (Ljubljana, 1952), 143.
- ^ Bogo GRAFENAUER, Kmečki upori na Slovenskem (Ljubljana, 1962), 348-349.
- ^ Hans PIRCHEGGER, Untersteiermark in der Geschichte ihrer Herrschaften un Gülten, Städte und Märkte (München, 1962), 255.
- ^ Josef Andreas JANISCH, Topographischestatistisches Lexikon von Steiermark mit Historischen Notizen und Anmerkungen (Graz, 1885), 97.
- ^ Ivan STOPAR, Grajske stavbe v Vzhodni Sloveniji, peta knjiga, Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save (Ljubljana, 1993), 119-122.
- ^ Hans PIRCHEGGER, Untersteiermark in der Geschichte ihrer Herrschaften un Gülten, Städte und Märkte (München, 1962), 255.
- ^ Zoran ZELIČ, Župnija Sv. Nikolaja v Sevnici (Sevnica, 2003), 87.
- ^ Josef Andreas JANISCH, Topographischestatistisches Lexikon von Steiermark mit Historischen Notizen und Anmerkungen (Graz, 1885), 95.
- ^ Josef Andreas JANISCH, Topographischestatistisches Lexikon von Steiermark mit Historischen Notizen und Anmerkungen (Graz, 1885), 95.
- ^ Carl SCHMUTZ, Historisch Topographisches Lexikon von Steyermark (Graz, 1822), 430.
- ^ Josef Andreas JANISCH, Topographischestatistisches Lexikon von Steiermark mit Historischen Notizen und Anmerkungen (Graz, 1885), 97.
- ^ Ivan KOMELJ, Sevniški grad in Lutrovska klet, Kulturni in naravni spomeniki Slovenije 20 (ljubljana, 1969), 12.
- ^ Ivan STOPAR, Grajske stavbe v Vzhodni Sloveniji, peta knjiga, Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save (Ljubljana, 1993), 122
- ^ Ivan KOMELJ, Sevniški grad in Lutrovska klet, Kulturni in naravni spomeniki Slovenije 20 (ljubljana, 1969), 10
- ^ Peter PETRU, Thilo ULBERT; Vranje pri Sevnici, Starokrščanske cerkve na Ajdovskem gradcu; Vranje bei Sevnica, Fruhchristliche Kirchenanlagen auf dem Ajdovski Gradec; Katalogi in monografije 12 (Ljubljana, 1975), 13.
Literature
- GRAFENAUER, Bogo, Kmečki upori na Slovenskem, (Ljubljana, 1962).
- JANISCH, Josef Andreas; Topographischestatistisches Lexikon von Steiermark mit Historischen Notizen und Anmerkungen (Graz, 1885).
- KOMELJ, Ivan, Sevniški grad in Lutrovska klet, Kulturni in naravni spomeniki Slovenije 20, (Ljubljana, 1969).
- SCHMUTZ, Carl; Historisch Topographisches Lexikon von Steyermark (Graz, 1822).
- STELE, France, »Vloga reformacije v naši umetnostni zgodovini«. Drugi Trubarjev zbornik, ed. Mirko Rupel, (Ljubljana, 1952).
- PETRU, Peter; ULBERT, Thilo; Vranje pri Sevnici, Starokrščanske cerkve na Ajdovskem gradcu; Vranje bei Sevnica, Fruhchristliche Kirchenanlagen auf dem Ajdovski Gradec; Katalogi in monografije 12 (Ljubljana, 1975).
- PIRCHEGGER, Hans; Untersteiermark in der Geschichte ihrer Herrschaften un Gülten, Städte und Märkte (München, 1962).
- STOPAR, Ivan, Grajske stavbe v vzhodni Sloveniji, peta knjiga, Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save (Ljubljana, 1993).
- TILLER, Viktor, Sevnica in okolica, (Ljubljana, 1938).
Sources
- KOS, Milko; Urbarji salzburške nadškofije, Srednjeveški urbarji za Slovenijo 1 (Ljubljana, 1939).
External links
- [1], The Municipality of Sevnica (official page)