Friesach

Friesach is a ancient city inside the Sankt Veit an der Glan district of Carinthia, Austria. First mentioned in an 860 deed, it's far known as the oldest city in Carinthia. In 860 King Louis the German of East Francia donated the lands of the estate advert Friesah - derived from Slavic Breza - inside the Bavarian March of Carinthia to Archbishop Adalwin of Salzburg. From about 740 Bavarians had crossed the Central Eastern Alps and settled a few of the Slavic Carantanians. After the formation of the Duchy of Carinthia in 976, Friesach remained a southern Salzburg exceptional and a strategically critical outpost.

About 1076 Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg, a follower of Pope Gregory VII inside the Investiture Controversy, had the Petersberg fort erected above the city with a view to prevent Emperor Henry IV from crossing the Alps. The archbishop additionally had fierce enemies within the Carinthian ducal House of Sponheim, who after his deposition made several attempts to take ownership of Friesach. Constant assaults through Duke Engelbert had been subsequently repelled in 1124. In 1149 King Conrad III of Germany stayed on the fortress on his manner lower back from the Second Crusade, as did Richard the Lionheart returning from the Third Crusade in 1192, attempting to elude the guards of Duke Leopold V of Austria.