The Duke's Chair, also known as the Duke's Seat (, or ), is a medieval stone seat dating from the ninth century and located at the Zollfeld plain near

Maria Saal Maria Saal () is a market town in the district of Klagenfurt-Land in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is located in the east of the historic Zollfeld plain (''Gosposvetsko polje''), the wide valley of the Glan River. The municipality includes ...

, north of Klagenfurt in the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n state of

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

History

The Duke's Chair, made mainly of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

gravestones from nearby

Virunum Claudium Virunum was a Roman Empire, Roman city in the province of Noricum, on today's Zollfeld in the Austrian State of Carinthia (state), Carinthia. Virunum may also have been the name of the older Celtic-Roman settlement on the hilltop of Magd ...

, actually consists of two stone seats, whose backrests are attached to each other. The larger seat, facing to the east, was reserved for the dukes, the other one, slightly older and facing to the west, for the

counts palatine A count palatine (Latin ''comes palatinus''), also count of the palace or palsgrave (from German language, German ''Pfalzgraf''), was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank abo ...

of the ''

Meinhardiner The House of Gorizia, also called the Meinhardiner, were a comital, princely and ducal dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire. Named after Gorizia Castle in Gorizia (now in Italy, on the border with Slovenia), they were originally "advocates" (''Vo ...

'' dynasty. Together with the Prince's Stone, it played an important role during the installation of the Dukes of Carinthia in a ceremony that may date back to the early medieval principality of Carantania. The chair was first mentioned as ''sedes Karinthani ducatus'' on the occasion of the installation of Duke Herman II of Spanheim in 1161. Here the newly installed duke had to swear an

oath Traditionally, an oath (from Old English, Anglo-Saxon ', also a plight) is a utterance, statement of fact or a promise taken by a Sacred, sacrality as a sign of Truth, verity. A common legal substitute for those who object to making sacred oaths ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and received the homage of the estates. It was the last part of a series of rituals which consisted of the ducal installation on the Prince's Stone (performed in Slovene) and of a

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

, which was held at the church of Maria Saal. The last installation took place in 1651, though the Duke, Ferdinand of Habsburg, the son of Emperor Ferdinand III, did not take part in person, but was represented by a personal deputy.

References

Sources

* * {{coord, 46, 41, 27, N, 14, 20, 47, E, display=title, region:AT-2_type:landmark_source:dewiki Duchy of Carinthia Individual thrones Medieval history of Slovenia Political history of Slovenia

History

See also

References

Sources