Slovenia · Restored
Turjak Castle
Grad Turjak
Turjak Castle is a medieval stronghold above the settlement of Turjak in Lower Carniola, Slovenia, long associated with the Auersperg family. The standing complex is a triangular-plan castle of bastion-like towers and connecting residential wings, notable for having two chapels and a suite of dungeons.
Its prime
1689
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1689
What Turjak Castle looked like in its prime.
Perched on a terraced wooded hill, the castle forms a broad triangular silhouette of three large bastille towers at the points linked by low residential wings; walls are predominantly white-plastered stone with patches of older masonry visible. Roofline is a mix of steep hipped and conical red-brown tile roofs, the central palacium rising higher than the wings. Windows are small and regularly spaced in the wings, while the towers display narrow defensive slits; the complex surrounds an internal courtyard.
Its story
The story of Turjak Castle.
The first castle at Turjak was built as early as the late 11th century by the knights, later counts, von Auersperg, it may have stood by 1062, the date the family, in the person of Konrad von Auersperg, is first mentioned. Rebuilt in 1190 by Count Adolf II von Auersperg, it was flattened again when his son Otto became entangled in a war with the noble houses of von Gortz and Ortenburg and the Patriarchate of Aquileia. In 1270 Peter and Wolfgang von Auersperg sold it to another branch of the family, only for Balthazar von Auersperg, chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, to buy it back.
The devastating earthquake of 1512 brought the major rebuilding that shaped the castle: a triangular plan on a terraced hill, large Renaissance defensive towers at the points of the triangle connected by residential wings, and a suite of dungeons of varying degrees of unpleasantness in the western tower. The counts offered financial support to the printing of some of the first Slovene books, and the castle is unusual in having two chapels, the Romanesque Protestant chapel named after Dalmatin contains the tombs of the Protestant counts and gothic frescoes.
The historian Valvasor attested to Turjak's importance by including two etchings of it, one a two-page spread, in his Glory of the Duchy of Carniola of 1689. The Auerspergs' hold ran deep into the modern era: Count Josef von Auersperg held the estate until his death in 1883, followed by his son Count Leo von Auersperg.
Step inside
9 places to explore in 1689.
The record describes 9 distinct spots at Turjak Castle, including 4 interiors: western bastille, dungeon suite, catholic chapel (west side), dalmatin protestant chapel (romanesque) and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Turjak Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1689, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
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Clans who held Turjak Castle.
The families that held Turjak Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Auersperg
Seat of the von Auerspergs from the late 11th century, possibly by 1062, held through the counts into the late 19th century.
