Burgruine Flaschberg

The Flaschberg castle ruin stands on a rocky outcrop above the Drava valley, three kilometres west of Oberdrauburg in Carinthia. It was once a Romanesque stronghold with three towers side by side, built to guard the pass between the Drava and Gail valleys. The first written record from 1154 mentions Ugo de Flassinperc as a witness in an Aquileian charter.

The Flaschberg family served the Counts of Görz for generations, raiding Salzburg lands and raising illegal taxes until the Peace of Pusarnitz in 1460 transferred the castle to imperial stewards. By 1500 Christof von Flaschberg left for the Count of Hardegg, and the estate passed through the Mandorffs to the Widmann-Ortenburgs in 1643. From 1662 to 1918 it belonged to the Princes of Porcia.

Today only the square bergfried remains, rising about eighteen metres above the rock. Its walls of carefully laid rubble are reinforced with dressed tufa quoins, and a round-headed high entrance survives on the north-west side. A second round arch on the north-east side frames tall rectangular slits that once let in light. The Renaissance steward’s house nearby, once enlarged by the Widmann-Ortenburgs, still shows its rectangular form with an oriel window.