Schloss Porcia is a castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 in Spittal an der Drau

Spittal an der Drau

Spittal an der Drau is located in the western part of the Austrian federal state of Carinthia and the administrative centre of the federal state's second largest district, Spittal an der Drau. It lies between the Lurnfeld area and the Lower Drava Valley. The city consists of the seven...

, in the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n state of Carinthia

Carinthia (state)

Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...

. It is one of the most significant Renaissance

Renaissance architecture

Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...

 buildings in Austria.

Construction of the edifice began in 1533 by Count Gabriel von Salamanca-Ortenburg

Gabriel von Salamanca-Ortenburg

Gabriel von Samalanca-Ortenburg was a Spanish nobleman who was general treasurer and archchancellor of the Austrian archduke Ferdinand I of Habsburg from 1521 to 1526....

 (1489–1539), treasurer of the Habsburg archduke Ferdinand I of Austria

Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...

. Originally from Burgos

Burgos

Burgos is a city of northern Spain, historic capital of Castile. It is situated at the edge of the central plateau, with about 178,966 inhabitants in the city proper and another 20,000 in its suburbs. It is the capital of the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León...

 in Habsburg Spain

Habsburg Spain

Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries , when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty...

, Salamanca in 1524 for his services had received the County of Ortenburg

Grafschaft Ortenburg

The Ortenburger were a medieval noble family in the Duchy of Carinthia, with roots in Bavarian nobility. An affiliation with the Counts of Ortenburg-Neuortenburg, a branch line of the Rhenish Franconian House of Sponheim, is not established. Little is known about their reasons for settlement in...

 in the Imperial Duchy of Carinthia

Duchy of Carinthia

The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, then the first newly created Imperial State beside the original German stem duchies....

. The Ortenburg dynasty had become extinct in 1418 and as their ancestral seat Ortenburg Castle

Burgruine Ortenburg

Burgruine Ortenburg is a mediæval castle near Baldramsdorf in Carinthia, Austria.It was erected in the late 11th century by ministeriales of the Bavarian Prince-Bishops of Freising, who then held large possessions in the Duchy of Carinthia. Their descendants began to call themselves Counts of...

 did not meet Salamanca's demands, he commissioned the design of his new comital residence in Spittal to Italian architects. He however did never live here, as the construction in a palazzo

Palazzo

Palazzo, an Italian word meaning a large building , may refer to:-Buildings:*Palazzo, an Italian type of building**Palazzo style architecture, imitative of Italian palazzi...

style continued until 1598.
After the Salamanca dynasty had become extinct in 1620, the patrician Widmann family acquired their estates and in 1662 ceded the castle to Prince John Ferdinand of Porcia, at this time minister and confidant of the Habsburg emperor Leopold I

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor

| style="float:right;" | Leopold I was a Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. A member of the Habsburg family, he was the second son of Emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain. His maternal grandparents were Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria...

. His descendants added Baroque

Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 elements to the façade in the 18th century, while the adjacent park was laid out in the 19th century.

Not until 1918 the Porcia family sold the castle, which in 1951 became a property of the Spittal municipality. The famous arcaded

Arcade (architecture)

An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....

 courtyard houses several Lombard-Italian sculptures and serves as a venue for the annual Komödienspiele Porcia festival. Furthermore the castle houses a museum for local history and is the site of several concerts and chorus recitals.

Porcia Castle is notorious for the White Lady

White Lady (ghost)

A White Lady is a type of female ghost reportedly seen in rural areas and associated with some local legend of tragedy. White Lady legends are found around the world. Common to many of them is the theme of losing or being betrayed by a husband or fiancé...

 Katharina of Salamanca, who is said to be guilty of remorselessness towards her subjects and cursed to haunt the rooms.

External links

• Official site
• Entry at Aeiou Encyclopedia
  Aeiou Encyclopedia
  AEIOU is a free online collection of reference works in both German and English about Austria-related topics.-Background:...