The noble Porcia family and the legacy of Hannibal Alphons Prince of Porcia at Prem Castle

Abstract

At the turn of the seventeenth century, the members of the originally Friulian Porcia family entered the service of the Habsburg rulers. By marrying into the noble families of Lamberg and Raunach, they came into the possession of the seigniories of Senožeče and Prem in Carniola, thus fortifying their position for a career ascension in the Habsburg monarchy. Their loyal service was rewarded in 1662, when Emperor Leopold I raised his first minister and former tutor, Johann Ferdinand Count von Porcia, to the rank of prince. The unified seigniory of Prem and Senožeče passed through the ownership of fifteen princes of Porcia until 1906, when the family sold its estate, thus ending its three-hundred-years-long presence in Carniola. One of its most famous members was Hannibal Alphons Prince of Porcia (1679–1738), whose probate inventory from 1740 provides a unique insight into the room-by-room inventory of the condition and movable property of Prem Castle during the period when it was in the hands of the Porcia family.