Liebenfels ( sl, Lepo Polje) is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in the district of

Sankt Veit an der Glan Sankt Veit an der Glan (; sl, Šentvid ob Glini) is a town in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the administrative centre of the Sankt Veit an der Glan District. It was the historic Carinthian capital until 1518. The famous chef Wolfgang Puck was ...

in the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n state of

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carin ...

Geography

Liebenfels Blick auf Soerg vom Schneebauer 06012008 01

The municipal area is situated on the southern slopes of the

Gurktal Alps The Gurktal Alps (german: Gurktaler Alpen, sl, Krške Alpe) is a mountain range located in the Central Eastern Alps in Austria, named after the valley of the Gurk river. The range stretches west to Lake Millstatt and east to Neumarkter Sattel ...

. It lies about west of the district capital

and directly north of the state capital

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

. The highest point in the municipality is the Schneebauerberg with an elevation of , and the lowest is in the valley of the Glan river at . The municiplatiy comprises the cadastral communities of Freundsam, Glantschach, Gradenegg, Hardegg, Liebenfels proper, Liemberg, Pflausach, Rosenbichl, Rottschaft Feistritz, Sörg, and Sörgerberg.

History

While the oldest archaeological findings in the area date back to the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

, the foundation of an ancient temple were discovered on a hill near the village of Hohenstein. The building was erected in the 2nd century AD, when the area was part of the Roman ''

Noricum Noricum () is the Latin name for the Celtic kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the nor ...

'' province, and dedicated to the local

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

goddess ''Noreia''. The building of church in the village of Glantschach was documented between 958 and 991. Located near the central ''

Zollfeld Zollfeld ( sl, Gosposvetsko polje) is a slightly ascending plain in Carinthia, Austria. It is one of the oldest cultural landscapes in the East Alpine region. Geography It is from to wide and about long, with an elevation between above sea ...

'' area in the

Duchy of Carinthia The Duchy of Carinthia (german: Herzogtum Kärnten; sl, Vojvodina Koroška) 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 Sta ...

, Liebenfels is the site of numerous medieval castles and residences, most notably Liebenfels Castle which was first mentioned as ''Liewenvelse'' in a 1312 deed.

References

External links

Municipal website
Cities and towns in Sankt Veit an der Glan District {{Carinthia-geo-stub