!!!Schlossberg

Schlossberg Hill in Graz (Styria), alt. 473 m, formerly barren 
rough isolated Dolomite rock, now partly park-like layout, rises 
122 m high on the plain of the left bank of the River Mur above 
Graz. Until the 19%%sup th/%  century northern cornerstone of the town 
fortification, today surrounded by the river. Pre-historic settlement 
is very likely. A small fortification from the early Middle Ages (from 
Carantanian times) might have given Graz its name ("gradec" 
= small fortress). Small fort from the 2%%sup nd/%  half of the 
10%%sup th/%  century; around 1125/1130 a fortress was built on the 
northern part. 1164 called "castrum Graece", the name 
"Schlossberg" has been used the 16%%sup th/%  century. New 
fortification built in Italian style between 1544 and 1588 by D. 
dell´ Allio and others. From then on the Schlossberg hill was 
the most important and impressive fortification in Inner Austria; 
besieged by the French in 1809, condemned to demolition in the Treaty 
of Schoenbrunn. The citizens saved the Stallbastei, Fernbergerbastei 
and Buergerbastei bastions, the chapel of St. Thomas and the clock and 
bell towers; area transformed into a park in 1839. The Schlossberg 
Bahn funicular railway was built in 1895. The casemates were 
transformed into an open-air stage for music and theatre performances 
in 1937.

\\
The clock tower (28 m high, 13%%sup th/%  century, received its 
current form 1559-1569) is the landmark of Graz. The Renaissance bell 
tower of 1588 boasts the largest bell in the province of Styria, the 
so-called "Tuerkenglocke" (Turks´ bell or 
"Lisl"), cast by Mert Hilger in 1587. The 
"Starcke-Haeuschen" (now restaurant), surrounded by a 
vineyard, dates from the period of Romanticism (around 1820). The 
Cerrini-Schloessl (1820) is the location of artists´ apartments 
and the apartment of the "Grazer Stadtschreiber" 
(writer-in-residence). The bronze lion of the Major-Hackher monument 
(2%%sup nd/%  cast by W. Goesser 1965) was put up in remembrance of 
the unsuccessful attempt of the French to besiege the Schlossberg Hill 
in 1809; Tuerkenbrunnen fountain (94 m deep), sunk into the rock 
in 1554-1558.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Graz_Schlossberg|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]