Sevnica Castle

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 Liehtenwalde”. [Ivan STOPAR, "Grajske stavbe v Vzhodni Sloveniji", peta knjiga, "Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save" (Ljubljana, 1993), 119.] The origin of the building was not known but it was most probably built during the bishopric of Conrad I (1106 - 1147), who rebuilt and colonized this area devastated by Hungarian invasions in the 10^th century and in the beginning of the 12^th century. [Ivan KOMELJ, "Sevniški grad in Lutrovska klet", Kulturni in naravni spomeniki Slovenije 20 (ljubljana, 1969), 4.] 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 was in the castle until 1479 when was appointed Archbishop Bernard Rohr, who came into conflict with Emperor Frederick III. During the ensuing war, Rohr established alliance with the governor of Hungary Janos Hunyady - Corvinus and granted him many nowadays Slovenian castles in Carinthia and Styria; among them was also Sevnica Castle. Janos Hunyady was very popular with simple folk, owing to this, he became Slovenian legendary King Mathias and many stories about him were passed on by oral tradition. After his death, the Peace of Bratislava in 1491 concluded the war and Sevnica Castle then became the possession of the emperor, but new Emperor Maximilian returned it in 1494 to Salzburg Archdiocese. [Ivan STOPAR, "Grajske stavbe v Vzhodni Sloveniji", peta knjiga, "Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save" (Ljubljana, 1993), 119.]

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. [Viktor ILLER, "Sevnica in okolica" (Ljubljana, 1938), 6.] 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.

dating from the second half of the 16^th century, which are one of the finest surviving paintings in Slovenia from that period. There is no evidence about the origin of this building, so we can determine the time of its construction only according to architectural style. This by appearance flat and featureless farm building was certainly designed for performing acts of worship as a clandestine Lutheran chapel whereby two questions arose: who built Lutheran chapel at the castle grounds owned by Salzburg Archdiocese and if any of the castle administrators at that time was a Protestant. [Ivan KOMELJ, "Sevniški grad in Lutrovska klet", Kulturni in naravni spomeniki Slovenije 20 (ljubljana, 1969), 12-13.] 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 2^nd 1575. The tombstone depicts him and his wife Dorothea kneeling in front of the crucifix. This kind of motif is a characteristic of Lutheran tombstones, while the Catholics prefer the motif of a patron saint. [France STELE, "Vloga reformacije v naši umetnostni zgodovini", "Drugi Trubarjev zbornik", ed. Mirko Rupel (Ljubljana, 1952), 143.] The belief, that the humankind can gain redemption owing to Christ's death on the cross, is fundamental of Lutheran religion. [France STELE, "Vloga reformacije v naši umetnostni zgodovini", "Drugi Trubarjev zbornik", ed. Mirko Rupel (Ljubljana, 1952), 146] Therefore, the castle administrator Geriacher was obviously a Protestant and most probably he built Lutheran Cellar.
Slovenian Protestants raised Slovenian language in the 16^th 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. However, the central figure among them 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 did not exist at that time and he could not be connected with this building.

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 5^th 1573 in Sevnica. [Bogo GRAFENAUER, "Kmečki upori na Slovenskem" (Ljubljana, 1962), 348-349.] The administrator of the castle was at that time Oswald Geriacher, who invited the rebellious peasants in the castle and treated them to a feast. He thus spared the castle from demolition, since the peasants left soon after and proceeded towards Lisca but his tactic could not work without former kindness shown to his own peasants.

In 1595, Inocenc Moscon bought Sevnica Castle. The family Moscon was of Italian origin. They acquired considerable wealth by skilful trading and possessed also many other nowadays Slovenian castles: Krško Castle, Podsreda Castle, Ortnek Castle, Pišece Castle etc. The matters about the purchase of Sevnica Castle were not clear and Inocenc incurred long litigation for the recognition of the ownership. The castle finally remained the property of Salzburg Archdiocese, while Moscons obtained the security of tenure. There is no evidence about the development of Sevnica Castle building until 1595, so we cannot know, what kind of edifice this has been. Inocenc Moscon rebuilt it in next two years 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 of the castle. Inocenc also turned Lutheran Cellar into his family vault in which he and his wife Anna were buried. [Ivan STOPAR, "Grajske stavbe v Vzhodni Sloveniji", peta knjiga, "Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save" (Ljubljana, 1993), 119-122.]

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. A fire broke out in the castle in 1763 and at restoration after it, the medieval tower was most probably lowered and levelled with the rest of the building. [Ivan STOPAR, "Grajske stavbe v Vzhodni Sloveniji", peta knjiga, "Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save" (Ljubljana, 1993), 122.] In 1803, count Johann Händl Rebenburg bought Sevnica Castle and 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. [Ivan STOPAR, "Grajske stavbe v Vzhodni Sloveniji", peta knjiga, "Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save" (Ljubljana, 1993), 122.] 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 19^th century were also made some alterations 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 19^th century, a wine cellar, with its roof propped by these supports, was built at the courtyard. [Ivan KOMELJ, "Sevniški grad in Lutrovska klet", Kulturni in naravni spomeniki Slovenije 20 (ljubljana, 1969), 12.]

In the second half of the 19^th 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. [Ivan STOPAR, "Grajske stavbe v Vzhodni Sloveniji", peta knjiga, "Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save" (Ljubljana, 1993), 122]

Between 1910 and 1945 was the proprietress of Sevnica Castle countess Matilda Arco Zinneberg. She used Lutheran Cellar as the burial place again. 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. Baroque fresco paintings depicting gallant motifs of four seasons,which Slovenian art historian Ivan Komelj dated into the 17^th century, [Ivan KOMELJ, "Sevniški grad in Lutrovska klet", Kulturni in naravni spomeniki Slovenije 20 (ljubljana, 1969), 10] were discovered at that time in the southeast tower of the castle. They were restored between 1977 and 1979.

evnica 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 Inocenc 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 Rebenburg brought it here from Ajdovski gradec, [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.] 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 shrubbery 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 19^th 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

Literature

* GRAFENAUER, Bogo, "Kmečki upori na Slovenskem", (Ljubljana, 1962).
* KOMELJ, Ivan, "Sevniški grad in Lutrovska klet", Kulturni in naravni spomeniki Slovenije 20, (Ljubljana, 1969).
* 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).
* STOPAR, Ivan, "Grajske stavbe v vzhodni Sloveniji", peta knjiga, "Med Kozjanskim in porečjem Save" (Ljubljana, 1993).
* TILLER, Viktor, "Sevnica in okolica", (Ljubljana, 1938).

External links

* [http://www.obcina-sevnica.si/] , The Municipality of Sevnica (the official page)