Borl, Borl Castle

Borl Castle stands on a steep rocky ledge above an ancient pass over the Drava River. It was first mentioned 1199. Myths even connect it with the search of the Holy Grail and Parsifal. Among its numerous owners were the Ptuj feudal lords, and after them the Herbersteins, Turns, Sauers and others. During World War II the castle was an internment camp, and after the war it was converted into a hotel. Later it was emptied and abandoned. Recently the state has taken over the care of it and has restored it architecturally.

Borl has a multilayer building design with distinguishable continuing development. The castle complex consists of a core from the 13th century with an early Gothic defence tower and a residential tract. The outer walls are extremely thick. The first inner courtyard, peripheral fortification architecture, residential tracts and arcade halls have been rebuilt several times. They were thoroughly redone in the first half of the 17th century. Around 1674 (redone after a fire in 1706) the tract by the outer courtyard was rebuilt, where the Baroque Chapel of the Holy Trinity was set up. They added a small clock tower as decoration. The portal of the central tract is great quality work by a stonemason. At the courtyard there is a cistern of extraordinary dimensions, and there is another one at the edge of a smaller yard.

The decoration and furnishings of the inner areas have been partly preserved. One of the representative areas in the castle is the Knights' Hall. The room next to it boasts a painted ceiling worth seeing. The Baroque sculptures of Hercules and Florian have been moved to the hall. Paintings from the chapel were stolen in 1993.

Below the castle there are only the remains of the former garden. Due to the lack of space the garden at the foot of the hill has been more ambitiously designed. By the centrally located pavilion, the square sections were arranged geometrically. The inner ones were ornamented and the outer were probably designed for growing vegetables and herbs. The garden was surrounded by a wall and four ornamented portals opened onto it. An avenue planted with trees on both sides connected the castle with the garden. Only individual trees have been preserved and the Baroque composition has disappeared. Reconstruction is possible in the empty area on the basis of the preserved graphic scheme and analogies.

In the building there are occasionally different cultural events, especially in the summer. The castle is not yet open to visits by the public.