Lihtenberk Castle ( sl, Grad Lihtenberk, german: Schloss Lichtenberg) is a 13th-century castle ruin located in the

Municipality of Šmartno pri Litiji The Municipality of Šmartno pri Litiji (; sl, Občina Šmartno pri Litiji) is a municipality in the traditional region of Lower Carniola in southeastern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the town of Šmartno pri Litiji. The municipali ...

in central

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

, directly adjacent to the later

Bogenšperk Castle Bogenšperk Castle (; sl, Grad Bogenšperk, german: Schloss Wagensperg) is a 16th-century castle located in the Municipality of Šmartno pri Litiji in central Slovenia. It is best known for its association with the 17th-century scientist and natu ...

. It is best known for a minor association with the 17th-century historian

Johann Weikhard von Valvasor Johann Weikhard Freiherr von Valvasor or Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor ( sl, Janez Vajkard Valvasor, ) or simply Valvasor (baptised on 28 May 1641 – September or October 1693) was a natural historian and polymath from Carniola, pr ...

, who owned the ruin and styled himself (among other things) "von Lichtenberg."

Architecture

Lihtenberk was a walled castle with a three-story residential palacium, remnants of which are the only element still visible today.

History

The castle first appears in written sources in 1223, in the form of a mention of its then-owner,

Aquileia Aquileia / / / / ;Bilingual name of ''Aquileja – Oglej'' in: vec, Aquiłeja / ; Slovenian: ''Oglej''), group=pron is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about from the sea, on the river ...

ministerialis The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire. The word and its German translations, ''Minist ...

Albert de Lihtenberca; the knights von Lichtenberg had taken the castle from the knights Andes, and they from the knights Višjegorski. In 1250, the castle is recorded as ''castrum Liechtemberch'', in 1288 as ''castrum Leytemberch'', in 1338 as ''Pilgrimum de Liechtenberch'', and in 1393 and 1396 simply as ''Lyechtenberg''. Around 1288 the castle was temporarily occupied by Count Meinhard of Tyrol, who gave it out in fief, but the

Patriarchate of Aquileia The Patriarchate of Aquileia was an episcopal see in northeastern Italy, centred on the ancient city of Aquileia situated at the head of the Adriatic, on what is now the Italian seacoast. For many centuries it played an important part in histo ...

soon intervened to revert the castle to its previous state of ownership. At the end of the 15th century, the castle was received as dowry by Boltežar the noble Wagen, imperial administrator of the castles of Hošperk by Planina and Šteberk in

Cerknica Cerknica (; , german: Zirknitz''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 120.) is a town in the Karst region of southwestern Slovenia, with a ...

, as well as lord of

Kostel Castle Kostel Castle ( sl, Grad Kostel) is a castle above the settlement of Kostel in southeastern Slovenia. It is located on a steep hill above the Kolpa River, not far from the Croatian border. History The site was originally occupied by a smalle ...

near the river

Kolpa The Kupa () or Kolpa ( or ; from la, Colapis in Roman times; hu, Kulpa) river, a right tributary of the Sava, forms a natural border between north-west Croatia and southeast Slovenia. It is long, with its border part having a length of and th ...

. By this time the castle was in a very poor state or repair, and the seat of the lordship was moved to the newly built

nearby. The fate of Lihtenberk was sealed by the

1511 Idrija earthquake The 1511 Idrija earthquake ( sl, Idrijski potres) occurred on March 26 with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). The epicenter was around the town of Idrija in present-day Slovenia, although some place it some 15-20 kilometers to th ...

which badly damaged the building; in 1630 its owner Jurij Kheysell demolished what was left and used the materials for the consolidation and repair of Bogenšperk, a practice continued later in the century by Valvasor.

Sources

* Ivan Jakič, ''Vsi slovenski gradovi'' ("All Slovene Castles"), DZS, Ljubljana, 1997, p. 188
Bogenšperk Castle - official website
{{coord, 46, 1, 24.02, N, 14, 51, 28.28, E, type:landmark_region:SI, display=title Castles in Lower Carniola Ruined castles in Slovenia