Eppenstein is a former municipality in the district of Murtal in the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n state of

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

. Since the 2015

Styria municipal structural reform The Styria municipal structural reform (German: ''Steiermärkische Gemeindestrukturreform'') was a local government reform in the Austrian state of Styria, which was made effective January 1, 2015. This reform nearly halved the number of Styrian ...

, it is part of the municipality

Weißkirchen in Steiermark Weißkirchen in Steiermark is a municipality in the district of Murtal in Styria, Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. ...

.Die neue Gemeindestruktur der Steiermark
/ref> Eppenstein lies in the Lavanttal Alps stretching along the narrow valley of the Granitzenbach creek, which runs from the Upper Mur valley in the north up to the

Obdach Saddle The Obdach Saddle (german: Obdacher Sattel) (el. 955 m.) is a high mountain pass in the Austrian Alps between the '' Bundesländer'' of Carinthia and Styria. See also * List of highest paved roads in Europe * List of mountain passes This is a li ...

pass and the

Lavant Valley Bezirk Wolfsberg is a district of the state of Carinthia in Austria. Municipalities Towns (''Städte'') are indicated in boldface; market towns (''Marktgemeinden'') in ''italics''; suburbs, hamlets and other subdivisions of a municipality are in ...

valley in

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

. The former municipal area comprised the

cadastral communities A cadastral community or cadastral municipality, is a cadastral subdivision of municipalities in the nations of Austria,Cadastral Template for Austria, web-pageCT-AT Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, ...

of Mühldorf, Schoberegg, and Schwarzenbach. Eppenstein is known for the medieval Eppenstein Castle, built about 1000 AD by the Eppenstein margravial dynasty, who temporarily ruled as Dukes of Carinthia in the 11th and 12th centuries. Later held by

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

''ministeriales'' like the

Graben von Stein Herren von Graben, also named ''von (dem) Graben'', ''vom Graben'', ''Grabner'', ''Grabner zu Rosenburg'', ''Graben zu Kornberg'', ''Graben zu Sommeregg'', ''Graben von (zum) Stein'', and ''ab dem Graben'' was the name of an old Austrian noble fam ...

family, it was rebuilt in a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style around 1478. Today only ruins remain.

References

Cities and towns in Murtal District {{Styria-geo-stub