Liebenfels () 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 rura ...

in the district of Sankt Veit an der Glan in the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n state of

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

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 (, ) is a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps in Austria which is named after the valley of the Gurk river. The range stretches west to Lake Millstatt and east to Neumarkter Sattel (north-northwest of Neumarkt in Steie ...

. It lies about west of the district capital Sankt Veit an der Glan and directly north of the state capital Klagenfurt. 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 municipality 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 or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

, 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 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 north, R ...

'' 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 Foot ...

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

Zollfeld Zollfeld () is a slightly ascending plain in Carinthia, Austria with interspersed small woods, hills, and swamps. It is one of the oldest cultural landscapes in the East Alpine region. Geography It is from to wide and about long, with an ele ...

'' area in the

Duchy of Carinthia The Duchy of Carinthia (; ; ) 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 State after the original German stem duchies. Car ...

, 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