Burgruine Griffen

The Burg Griffen is a castle on a 130m/427 ft-high limestone mountain above the town of Griffen in the Austrian state of Carinthia.

The castle was built between 1124 and 1146 by order of Bishop Otto of Bamberg. In an 1160 deed, Emperor Friedrich I mentioned Grivena as a Bamberg property.

In 1292 the Carinthian nobleman Count Ulrich von Heunburg with support of Archbishop Konrad IV of Salzburg occupied the fort in an uprising against Albert of Habsburg, the son of King Rudolph I of Germany and Duke Meinhard II. However Ulrich was abandoned by his allies and one year later had to leave the castle. In 1759 Bishop Adam Friedrich sold the Bamberg estates in Carinthia to Maria Theresa of Austria and the castle was incorporated into the Carinthian duchy.

About 1520 a large reconstruction of the castle took place as a protection against the threat posed by the Ottoman forces with a base amounted of about 4000 m2, though the Turks never laid siege to Griffen.

Within the mountain is the Griffener Tropfsteinhöhle (dripstone cave) with a length of 485m/1591 ft, which was not discovered until the late days of World War II. It is open to public and a natural landmark since 1957.

Text adapted from “Burgruine Griffen” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Burgruine Griffen ranks #3,663 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #94 of the 200 mapped in Austria. Founded 1124, it is older than 86% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 544 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. 10 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, 34 km away. See how Austria compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗