Laubegg Castle

Laubegg Castle is located in the municipality of Ragnitz in the district of Leibnitz in Styria.

Laubegg, originally belonging to the Eppensteiners, passed into the possession of the Mureckers and finally fell to the noble family of the Wildoners. Near the present-day cadastral community of Laubegg, where the castle of the same name stands, there used to be a ferry across the Mur river. Ullinus de Lovbeke, a follower of the Wildoners, was first mentioned here in a document in 1254. In 1302, Hartnid III. von Wildon had to cede his property Laubegg as compensation to the Diocese of Seckau and was able to retain it as a fief. In 1308, the Wildoners lost Laubegg Castle and its dominion to the Graz Walseers, and after their extinction in 1363, the Lords of Pettau took over the episcopal fief. After the death of the last Pettauer, Friedrich IX., in 1438, his daughter Agnes bequeathed the dominion to King Friedrich III., the later Emperor, whereby it attained princely status.

In 1532, the complex was destroyed in the first Austrian-Turkish War, and the reconstruction of the castle began in 1561. There was good visual contact between the castle and neighboring fortifications, which is why a beacon station was set up as a warning system.

Laubegg Castle changed hands repeatedly in the following centuries, being used, among other things, as a novitiate house, until it was used as a "Gauschulungsburg" (district training castle) in 1940. In the period after the Second World War and the occupation by Soviet and British troops, extensive renovation work began on the exterior facade and in the interiors. In the more recent past, the building was used as a nursing home for the elderly and as a Caritas recreation home. Since 2004, the training and operations center of the Styrian Red Cross, which is now the owner, has been located in the castle's premises.