CEPT - monuments - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1978 - 6 Shilling

The brand image shows the Riegersburg in Styria. It is one of the most important historical monuments of this Austrian province. Even in prehistoric times people put on the castle hill to a settlement. Throughout the centuries, this place in Eastern Styria has been the sanctuary of the local population. The first documented mention of the Riegersburg refer to the years from 1142 to 1185th In the second half of the 12th century, the construction of castles in this area was necessary due to disputes with the Hungarian neighbors. For this reason, the Riegersburg was born. It was the center of one of the provincial parishes of the country, its district forms today with eight parishes, the largest of Styria. The oldest church, St. Magdalena from the 12th century, was in today's main parsonage on the eastern edge of the castle hill. The current parish church, a massive gothic building, was built only in the late Middle Ages, when the small castle settlement slowly took on market-like forms. Under Erasmus von Stadl began the modern conversion of the castle to the castle castle (about 1575). The present appearance of the Riegersburg as a splendid Renaissance castle is due to Katharina Elisabeth Freiin von Galler. She entered her inheritance in 1648 and built the Riegersburg in its characteristic form.