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O
n the northern
slope of mount Orlica, some 5 kilometres away from the market place od
Podsreda, there shows of the Podsreda Castle. The still insufficiently
explored past of the castle is made up for by the surprising expressiveness
of the eightcentury-old masonry which, in spite of the numerous structural
alterations and extensions, has preserved an almost intact original core.
Hörberg or Herberch, as the castle used to be called, was erected in
the first half of the 12th century and laid out to form a simple and typical
rectangular nucleus. Somewhere about 1180, a higt defensive tower - the
keep - was added, then, about 1220, the southern palatium (wing), and about
1260, another tower with a chapel.
A
bout the
year 1000, the whole of Kozjansko area belonged to the feudal estate of
the Breže-Seliški counts, and later on to Countess Hema. Upon Hema's death,
the majority of her estate passed under the archbishopric of Salzburg and
the bishopric of Krka (Gurk in Carinthia, Austria). Ever since its erection,
the castle formed one of the five regional law court.
In 1213, when the castle is mentioned for the first time, Ortolf, a
nobleman from Planina, deeded it to his wife Kiburga from Ptuj. In 1338,
Herman von Kranichberg sells Podsreda Castle to Friderik Žovnek, and after
that Podsreda Castle is one of those Krka castles which were regularly
certified to the Celje counts by said bishops. When the Celje counts had
died out, the Castle of Podsreda and the feudal estate became the property
of the country's sovereign. After that, the leaseholders and stewards of
the castle succeeded one another in rapid succession, till in 1617 Count
Sigmund von Tattenbach acquired a permanent and hereditary title to it.
In 1701, the Podsreda estate was inherited by Countess Eleonora E. Barbo,
upon her death by her daughter Maria H. of Apfaltrern, and in 1787 by Baron
von Lazarini. About 1848, the estate was bought by Duke Weriand von Windischgrätz.
He, and even more so Count Schönburg-Glauchau, his son-in-law, gave the
castle in the following years its present appearance. The estate remained
in the hands of his heirs till the end of the World War II.
S
ince 1983,
the castle has been systematically renovated under auspices of Kozjansko
park. At the same time, the casle's original architectural components have
been carefully uncovered.
The renovated storerooms are intended for exhibition activity, the
hall for concerts and promotions.
I
n one room
on the first floor, is prepared for you a short presentation of the castle's
past and the progress of the renovating works so far performed. Also, there
is presented the partnership between the Wolfsegg (near Regensburg) and
the Podsreda castles. In the adjoining room are displayed Vischer's graphics
of the castles: Podsreda, Kunšperk, Bizeljsko, Kozje, Pilštanj, Hartenštajn,
Olimje, Podčetrtek, Planina, Brestanica, Jelšingrad and Rifnik, all of
them taken from the topography of the Dukedom od Styria - Topographia Ducatus
Stirie, dating from 1681. In the renaissance hall, there hang coloured
graphic woodcuts with presentation of the clothes and pieces of furnishings
made about 1860, while in the tower and of the gallery there are coloured
lithographs of the Štajersko castles (Reichert and Kaiser). Both collections
were donated by Kurt Müller, a guest of the Rogaška Slatina spa centre
of
many years standig.
M
ention also
needs to be made of the medieval kitchen and the castle dungeon hidden
underneath the staircase.
O
n the ground
floor is presented the glass, which is based upon both the glassmaking
tradition and the contemporary manufacture of master glassmakers from Rogaška
Slatina, the Kozjansko area, and elsewhere. In fact, glass manufacture
in the Kozjansko area has a long tradition, and it flourished primarily
in those places where the existing areas of woodlands offered sufficient
quantities of wood. In these parts, the main products were primarily articles
made from green and colourless glass, while some glass vessels and fragments
of glass which have survived on the dumps of the formed glass works bear
evidence that opaque (milk) glass, as well as multicoloured glass, was
also manufactured here. In this area, there operated the glass works at
Loka pri Žusmu, Vetrnik, Log ob Sotli, Čača vas, Jurklošter, Svetli dol
at the foot of mount Svetina, and others. Some of them also exported their
products to Italy, the Orient, etc. In 1841, the owner of the glass company
at Loka pri Žusmu was awarded a bronze medal at the Central Austrian trade
fair for the higt quality of his products. Aside from manufacturing mineral
water bottles, teh Kozjansko glass works, like those located on the Pohorje
ridge, manufactured glassware for storing medicines and victuals, lighting
ware, table services and dinnerware, window glass, and the like.
T
he more valuable
vessels would be decorated by cutting, polishing and grinding, engraving,
enamelling and painting behind glass. In this way, the decorative elements
would change gradually from artistic and craftsmanmade into etnographic
characteristics. Objects intended for everyday use were mostly plain, strictly
functional and of aesthetically simple forms.
Aside from simple glassware, the objects produced in Slovenia in the
18th and 19th centuries also included more exacting items, so that
glassmakers in no way lagged behind the developments of other European
countries of the time. (source: Kozjanski park for burger.si, 2000)
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