Otakar III#

b. 1124, d. Dec. 31, 1164, Margrave of Styria (1129-1164), grandson of Otakar II, father of Otakar IV, member of the Otakare dynasty. Founder of the principality of Styria, inherited from the Marburg line of the Sponheim parts of Lower Styria from the River Drau up to the River Save (now Slovenia) and from his uncle, the last Count of Formbach, the Mark of Pitten in Lower Austria in 1158. O. extended the road across the Semmering, established a hospital (Spital am Semmering) in 1160 and ended the colonisation of the area along the Rivers Traisen and Goelsen. Held the rights to mineral resources, extended his sovereignty, minted his own coins and in 1163 founded the monastery of Vorau in the Wechselgau, Styria and the Carthusian monastery of Seitz in Lower Styria. In the 2nd crusade he brought back artists from Byzantium (St. John's Chapel Puergg).