Sachsenburg

Geschichte

Sachsenburg is a market town in the district of Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia, Austria.GeographyThe municipal area stretches along the valley of the Drava river, where it enters the Lurnfeld plain between the Kreuzeck group of the Hohe Tauern mountain range in the north and Gailtal Alps in the south. The municipality comprises the cadastral communities of Sachsenburg and Obergottesfeld.HistoryThe origin of the name is uncertain: an affiliation with the far apart mediæval Duchy of Saxony has never been established; however the coat of arms probably awarded in the 16th century shows a Saxe, a kind of pan formerly used for gold prospecting within the nearby Hohe Tauern range. The strategically important narrow place of the Drava valley (Sachsenburger Klause) probably was guarded already in Roman times, when the area was part of the Noricum province.Two fortresses blocking the passage along the river were first mentioned in a 1213 deed. Sachsenburg is documented as an administrative seat of the Archbishops of Salzburg in 1292, who held large possessions within the Duchy of Carinthia. As a Salzburg stronghold, it was a thorn in the flesh of both the Carinthian dukes and the Counts of Gorizia at Lienz, therefore often under attack by their forces. In 1252, Count Meinhard III of Gorizia allied with his father-in-law Count Albert IV of Tyrol laid siege to the fortress, though to no avail. The Salzburg archbishops granted the settlement market rights in 1326 and had further ramparts and town walls erected.