experience sankt veit

Provincial capital

With the end of the Spanheim era, Carinthia became a neighbour country of ducal dynasties that were not resident in the country. From the governors that were sent to St. Veit from then on, Ludwig, the son of Duke Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol, was imprisoned in 1292 in a conspiracy by Count Ulrich of Heunburg in connection with Salzburg’s archbishop and with the help of citizens of St. Veit. After the suppression of the revolt in the battle on Wallersberg (1293), apart from the noble conspirators also the citizen of St. Veit, Konrad von dem Türlin, was executed on the main square. It is probably since then that the St. Veit trabant guards have existed. They were presumably put up for the protection of the duke; later they received the special favour of the Habsburgs and today they serve as decoration for festive occasions.
Meinhard’s sons, who jointly reigned over Carinthia from 1295, held a big courtly assembly in St. Veit in 1299, whose splendid order of events was comprehensively outlined by the abbot and historian, Johann von Viktring. In 1294 the administration of Carinthia was entrusted to Konrad von Auffenstein, the provincial governor who had moved there from Tyrol. He acquired extensive possessions in Carinthia and as the founder of the convent of nuns of St Clare he is also of great importance for the town history of St. Veit.
After the death of Duke Heinrich, who died in 1335 without leaving a male heir, the Habsburgs were successful in achieving from Emperor Ludwig the enfeoffment with the Duchy of Carinthia. Subsequently, the Habsburgs attached great importance to St. Veit; they extended the town’s rights and decisively promoted it by granting new economic privileges.
Since Carinthia was only a relatively insignificant secondary land of the Habsburgs, the sovereign prince only visited St. Veit in exceptional cases from 1335 on. However, his absence promoted the complete development of the princely authorities that had already emerged in the 13th century. As their seat, St. Veit became the administrative centre and was also called the capital in documents from 1450 on.
As it was an economically flourishing and emergent place, the town was very attractive for immigrants for centuries. At the time of the Tyrolean dukes it was people from Northern Italy and Tyrol who came to St. Veit; in the 15th century financially strong citizens from Upper German towns settled in the area, such as the families Gleismüllner and Kaltenhauser from Nuremberg, who acquired great wealth in St. Veit as entrepreneurs in the mining industry and wholesalers.