Story

How was a castle built in the Middle Ages? With what tools, what technology?
Answers to these exciting questions can be found in Friesach in Austria’s southernmost province of Carinthia.

Construction work on the “Siegfriedstein Castle” in Friesach has been underway since 2009. There are plenty of models for this bold project in Carinthia. In his film, Gernot Stadler shows the most impressive castle complexes and makes life in the Middle Ages comprehensible with elaborate scenes.

The bold rock castles, which experienced their heyday in the 12th and 13th centuries, have become symbols of chivalric-feudal rule beyond their mere defensive function. They were built, inhabited and defended on behalf of the respective sovereigns, which in Carinthia included the Archbishop of Salzburg, the Bishop of Bamberg and the Counts of Gorizia-Tyrol as well as the Duke.

The film offers a cultural history of the castles and palaces in Austria’s southernmost province of Carinthia, focusing on particularly impressive castle complexes. These include Hochosterwitz Castle, which even served as the model for a Disney film, Landskron Castle near Villach, the romantic-looking Stein Castle in the Drau Valley and the ruins of the Kraig Castles. Director Gernot Stadler explores the question of what purpose castles served at different times and traces the transformation from fortifications to prestigious aristocratic residences.

Production data:

Format

Docudrama, 53 min, 2017

Production

GS-Film, ORF/3sat

Written and directed by

Gernot Stadler

Camera

Gernot Stadler, Seppi Dabringer, Dieter Frank, Karim Shafik

Camera assistance & sound

Björn Kölz

Music

Manfred Plessl

Production management

Monika Orsini-Rosenberg

Distribution

ORF Enterprise