The story of Ptuj Castle

People have lived on this hill without a break since the Neolithic, and around 1000 BC it was already a fortified settlement. Celts, Romans and early Slavs all left their traces here before Archbishop Konrad I of Salzburg had a fortress built between 1125 and 1130. In the courtyard, look for the well: it probably dates from the 11th or 12th century and is 54 metres deep. In the Middle Ages this was a castle of real weight.

Alongside Stubenberg and Wildon, it was the only one in Styria obliged to provide 200 armed men for the defence of the land, and in 1487 a travelling Italian, Paolo Santonino, wrote that it was strong and invincible. From 1480 to 1490 it belonged to the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus. In 1656 the Jesuits sold it to Walter Leslie, a Scottish-born field marshal, who turned it into a Baroque residence.

The Herberstein family owned it from 1873 until 1945, and after that it became a regional museum.