Griffen () is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

in the district of

Völkermarkt Völkermarkt (; ) is a town of about 11,000 inhabitants in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the administrative capital of Völkermarkt District. It is located within the Drava valley east of the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt, north of the Karaw ...

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 ...

Geography

Griffen lies in the wide ''Jauntal'' valley of the

Drava The Drava or Drave (, ; ; ; ; ), historically known as the Dravis or Dravus, is a river in southern Central Europe.

River, between the Klagenfurt basin in the west 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 the north. The municipal area comprises the cadastral communities of Griffnerthal, Großenegg (''Tolsti Vrh''), Haberberg (''Gabrje''), Kaunz (''Homec''), Kleindörfl (''Mala vas''), Pustritz (''Pustrica''), Sankt Kollmann (''Šentkolman''), Wölfnitz (''Golovica''), and Wriesen (''Brezje''). It is further subdivided into 35 villages and hamlets.

History

From the 7th century onwards, the ''Jauntal'' (Slovene: ''Podjuna'') area was a centre of the

Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps The settlement of the Eastern Alps region by early Slavs took place during the 6th to 8th centuries CE. It formed part of the southward expansion of early Slavs which would result in the South Slavic group, and would ultimately result in the ethno ...

and part of the early medieval principality of

Carantania Carantania, also known as Carentania (, , in Old Slavic '), was a Slavic principality that emerged in the second half of the 7th century, in the territory of present-day southern Austria and north-eastern Slovenia. Since the middle of the ...

. Up to today it remains a core territory of the

Carinthian Slovenes Carinthian Slovenes or Carinthian Slovenians (; ; ) are the Indigenous peoples, indigenous minority of Slovenes, Slovene ethnicity, living within borders of the Austrian state of Carinthia, neighboring Slovenia. Their status of the minority group ...

. The settlement was first mentioned in an 822 deed, after Carantania had been incorporated into the

Carolingian Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Franks, Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as List of Frankish kings, kings of the Franks since ...

and evolved to the Bavarian

March of Carinthia March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 21 ...

. From 1124 onwards Bishop

Otto of Bamberg Otto of Bamberg (1060 or 1061 – 30 June 1139) was a German missionary and papal legate who converted much of medieval Pomerania to Christianity. He was the bishop of Bamberg from 1102 until his death. He was canonized in 1189. Early life Thr ...

had Griffen Castle erected within the Carinthian possessions of the

prince-bishopric A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty, as opposed to ''Prince of the Church'' itself, a title associated with cardinals. Since 1951, the sole extant prince-bishop has been the Bi ...

, received from the hands of King

Henry II of Germany Henry II (; ; ; 6 May 973 – 13 July 1024 AD), also known as Saint Henry, Order of Saint Benedict, Obl. S. B., was Holy Roman Emperor ("Romanorum Imperator") from 1014. He died without an heir in 1024, and was the last ruler of the Ottonian dy ...

in 1007. The ''Grivena'' fortress was acknowledged as a Bamberg estate by Emperor

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (; ), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 115 ...

in 1160. From 1237 Griffen held

market rights A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

From about 1233 the Bamberg bishops had the Romanesque Griffen parish church enlarged and rebuilt as a

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular in the Catholic Chur ...

monastery. The first canons descended from

Vessra Abbey Vessra Abbey () was a Premonstratensian monastery in the village also named Kloster Veßra in the district of Hildburghausen, Thuringia, Germany. The monastery was founded in the 1130s by Gotebold II, Count of Henneberg, and his wife Liutgard o ...

in the Franconian

County of Henneberg The House of Henneberg was a medieval German Graf, comital family (''Grafen'') which from the 11th century onwards held large territories in the Duchy of Franconia. Their county was raised to a Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, princely county ( ...

. The monastery complex was completed in 1272 and significantly enlarged by

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

buildings in the 17th century. Griffen remained the only Premonstratensian abbey in the

Inner Austria Inner Austria (; ; ) was a term used from the late 14th to the early 17th century for the Habsburg hereditary lands south of the Semmering Pass, referring to the Imperial duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola and the lands of the Austrian Li ...

n lands until its abolition under the rule of Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

in 1786. Griffen itself remained a possession of the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg until the estates were purchased by Empress

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure, in her own right. She was the ...

in 1759. The castle decayed and today lies in ruins. The present-day municipality emerged in 1850, it temporarily also comprised neighbouring Ruden. After the Carinthian referendum of 1920, multiple tensions arose between the Slovene- and German-speaking population, which culminated in the persecution and displacement of Carinthian Slovenes after the Austrian ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

'' to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in 1938.

Politics

Seats in the municipal assembly (''Gemeinderat'') as of 2009 local elections: *

Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party ( , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since January 2025, the party has been led by Christian Stocker (as an acting leader). It is currently the second-largest p ...

(ÖVP): 14 *

Alliance for the Future of Austria The Alliance for the Future of Austria (; BZÖ) is a right-wing populist, national conservative political party in Austria. The BZÖ was founded on 3 April 2005 by Jörg Haider as a moderate splinter from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) ...

(BZÖ) and Independents: 5 *

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

(SPÖ): 4

Notable people

The village of Altenmarkt (''Stara vas'') is the birthplace of Austrian writer

Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrians, Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has ...

, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

References

Cities and towns in Völkermarkt District {{Carinthia-geo-stub