Schloss Ehrenfels

Schloss Ehrenfels stands in the Lavant valley town of Bad St. Leonhard in Carinthia. It is a medieval fortress later turned into a Renaissance schloss on a rocky spur above the river. The older castle of Gomarn once belonged to Bamberg diocese, while Ehrenfels remained in private hands until 1635. The lords of Ehrenfels came from Switzerland and gave the castle its name. Their coat of arms showed three fish, recorded in a 14th-century roll.

The castle’s owners played leading parts in Carinthia’s history. In the 14th century Wulfing von Ehrenfels served as Bamberg’s steward and vice-dominus. Two of his brothers became notorious robber knights, even seizing a bishop on his way to a wedding. At the start of the 15th century one brother was Carinthia’s provincial captain and another bishop of Lavant. Later the fortress passed to Count Georg Nogarol, who added a mighty bastion still marked with his Tuscan coat of arms.

Visitors enter through a Gothic gateway into an arcaded inner courtyard built in the 16th and 17th centuries. The courtyard walls carry the Nogarol crest. A 1936 earthquake brought down the south wing, and wartime bombs damaged the building again in 1945. After each disaster the castle was rebuilt, preserving its Renaissance character. The surviving sections show how medieval fortress and later schloss were joined on the rocky ridge above the Lavant valley.