A castle and two manors in Šoštanj
A description of architectural history
Keywords:
castle, medieval castles, tower houses, manor, Renaissance manors, noble gardens, Šoštanj, Schönstein, Pusti Grad Castle, Turn, architecture, architectural history, castellology, architectural development, Romanesque architecture, Gothic architecture, Renaissance architecture, Baroque architecture, lords of Schönstein (Šoštanj), Counts of Heunburg (Vovbre), lords of Sannegg (Žovnek), Counts of Cilli (Celje), Schrattenbach, Schrottenbach, Thurn-ValsassinaAbstract
The contribution discusses the so far largely neglected architectural historical significance of the medieval Šoštanj Castle, the no longer extant homonymous early modern manor, and Turn Manor in Šoštanj. The history and the architectural development of the three buildings are closely intertwined. The medieval castle stood on the hillside overlooking the Paka Valley between the second half of the twelfth century and about 1438. In the second half of the thirteenth century and the fourteenth century, respectively, a tower house was constructed nearby to serve the castle, both of which were subsequently converted into early modern Šoštanj manors. Built on the edge of the market town of Šoštanj, the homonymous manor had grown into a magnificent noble residence by the late seventeenth century and reached its greatest prosperity during the period of the Counts of Schrattenbach. In 1734, however, it was razed by a fire and its remains were removed. After the decline of Šoštanj Manor, the role of the administrative centre and residence was taken over by Turn Manor, which came into existence through an imaginative adaptation of a seventeenth-century granary and is still preserved in the renovated forms it was given in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
