Old Castle

The ruins stand on a steep slope above the central square, on a small plateau below Nanos. There was a settlement at the side as early as in pre-historic times, and around 1100 it was resettled by the Counts of Bogen, who shared the estate with the patriarchs of Aquileia; the northern part of the castle, the Romanesque bergfried, was probably built at that time. Sources mention the castle indirectly for the first time in 1154, when the Bogen ministerialis Wulfling dee Wippach was named in the charter as the lord of Vipava. At the beginning of the 13th century, the estates of the Counts of Bogen were taken over by relatives of the Counts of Andechs; Berthold of Andechs, the Patriarch of Aquileia, transferred part of the Vipava lordship to the patriarchate in 1251, and part of it was inherited from the Counts of Bogen in 1242 by the Babenbergians and after them by Ulrich Sponheim, whose share also became the property of the Patriarch of Aquileia in 1269. He turned the estate into a gastaldate and appointed chiefs in charge of economic administration and the judiciary. In addition to the chief, the staff who took care of the defence of the castle also resided in the castle. In 1320, the patriarch granted the castle to Rajnher Schenk as a fief, and between 1342 and 1343 other Aquileian vassals sold it to the Habsburgs without the patriarch's knowledge. At the latest in the first half of 15th century, a wall that was semicircular on the northern side, and probably also a defensive moat, were added to the castle. After a Turkish invasion in 1478, the area of the castle was protected with a Renaissance wall with round towers, and the old castle wall was upgraded with small roundels. In 1487, Emperor Frederick III granted the Vipava estate with the castle a fief to Leonard Baron Herberstein, and ten years later Emperor Maximilian granted it to Count Leonard of Gorizia; after his death it again came into the possession of the Habsburgs. In 1528 it was taken over by the Lanthieri barons and it remained in their possession until the end of the Second World War.