Kozjak Castle ( sl, Grad Kozjak, german: Schloss Kosieck) is a 13th-century castle ruin on a rocky hill above the village of Dolenje Selce near the town of Dobrnič, part of the Municipality of

Trebnje Trebnje (, german: Treffen) is a town in southeastern Slovenia. Trebnje lies on the Temenica River in the traditional region of Lower Carniola. The area was already settled in Antiquity. The modern settlement developed on the main regional road ...

Lower Carniola Lower Carniola ( sl, Dolenjska; german: Unterkrain) is a traditional region in Slovenia, the southeastern part of the historical Carniola region. Geography Lower Carniola is delineated by the Ljubljana Basin with the city of Ljubljana to the n ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

History

Built after 1250, the castle itself was first mentioned only in 1332 (in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

) as ''castrum Cozyak'', although the historian

Johann Weikhard von Valvasor Johann Weikhard Freiherr von Valvasor or Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor ( sl, Janez Vajkard Valvasor, ) or simply Valvasor (baptised on 28 May 1641 – September or October 1693) was a natural historian and polymath from Carniola, pr ...

notes that a knight Ulrik of Kosieck must have already been the owner of the castle in 1274. Initially, the area was part of the lordship of Šumberk; after the

Counts of Gorizia The County of Gorizia ( it, Contea di Gorizia, german: Grafschaft Görz, sl, Goriška grofija, fur, Contee di Gurize), from 1365 Princely County of Gorizia, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. Originally mediate ''Vogts'' of the Patriarchs of ...

had the castle built, it became the home of the knights of Kosieck and a separate lordship of Kozjak was established around it. After the death of Ulrik of Kosieck in 1317, Ortolf of Kosieck became the owner of the castle until 1329. The last native lord of Kozjak was - according to Valvasor - Louis of Kosieck, who was in 1475 captured by the

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

. Though his family ransomed him after a year for the sum of 2000

guilder Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' " gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Emp ...

s, he died soon after his return, having allegedly been poisoned by his captors. After the extinction of the house, the castle was inherited by the Kosieck's relatives the Sauer family. The first known owner of this house was Pancratius Sauer, owner between 1540 and 1550, followed by his son George Sauer between 1555 and 1556, Jost Sauer in 1576, Jost and George Sauer in 1588, and Johann Louis Sauer between 1594 and 1599. After the tenure of the last Sauer, Franz, the castle was in 1611 bought by his brother-in-law Johann Frederik the noble Räuber, who in 1619 handed it over to his brother Johann Louis. Around 1689, the castle was bought by prince Franz Ferdinand Auersperg, who merged its estate with Šumberk. The castle was partially abandoned at the end of the 17th century, with the uninhabited sections allowed to decay; it is likely that the rest of it was not completely abandoned until the early 19th century. After World War II, Ivan Komelj described it only as a "completely overgrown pile of rocks." Today, only a few outer walls and a central building survive reasonably intact, though the basic floorplan, including the remains of rooms and the foundations of towers, remains clearly visible.

Architecture

The first known depiction of the castle is an etching in Valvasor's 1689 ''

The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola ''The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola'' (german: Die Ehre deß Hertzogthums Crain, sl, Slava vojvodine Kranjske) is an encyclopedia published in Nuremberg in 1689 by the polymath Johann Weikhard von Valvasor. It is the most important work on his ...

'', which portrays it as a two-story building of rectangular layout and with a sizeable extension on the south side. The east side features a prominent platform on raised piles. The castle was surrounded by external walls fortified with three towers.

In literature

Kozjak Castle is a major setting of the book '' Jurij Kozjak'' by the Slovene writer

Josip Jurčič Josip Jurčič (4 March 1844 – 3 May 1881) was a Slovene writer and journalist. He was born in Muljava, Austrian Empire (now part of the municipality of Ivančna Gorica, Slovenia)Levec, Fran. 1881. Josip Jurčič. ''Ljubljanski zvon'' 1(6) ( ...

, which includes descriptions of medieval castle life and its surroundings during the era of Ottoman incursions.

References and sources

*Johann Weikhard von Valvasor, ''Die Ehre deß Hertzogthums Crain'', vol. 11, p. 315. *Majda Smole, ''Graščine na nekdanjem Kranjskem'', p. 237 *Ivan Stopar, ''Grajske stavbe v osrednji Sloveniji'', vol. 2: ''Dolenjska'', part 3.: ''Porečje Temenice in Mirne'' - Viharnik, Ljubljana, 2002 {{coord, 45, 53, 35.43, N, 14, 55, 39.16, E, type:landmark_region:SI, display=title Castles in Lower Carniola Municipality of Trebnje Ruined castles in Slovenia