Where Did the Auerspergs Come From?
Like many other noble dynasties, the House of Auersperg cloaked their past and origins in legend and mystery. These were not merely colourful additions to the family history, but an important means of expressing the dynasty’s sense of identity, its origins, and its place in the past.
In his work, the artist Matej Andraž Vogrinčič highlights the aurochs, the central heraldic symbol of the House of Auersperg. This extinct species of European wild cattle embodied untamed strength and power.
Why did the aurochs become the principal symbol of the House of Auersperg? And how did legends about the dynasty’s origins come into being? Find out more
Stories of origin
The First Hunter?
In the time of the earliest Auerspergs, aurochs still inhabited the forests of Lower Carniola. According to legend, these formidable wild cattle hindered the construction of the new castle. The lord of the castle, regarded as the founder of the House of Auersperg, hunted them down one by one and killed them all – except for a single beast. He pursued it through the forest for five days, and on the sixth finally caught and subdued it, bringing it back to the castle alive. One of the masons then uttered a prophecy: “Your House will stand strong. Though they tame aurochs no longer, your heirs will still be heroes.” Pleased with this prediction, the first Auersperg is said to have adopted the image of the wild aurochs as his coat of arms.
A Noble Reward?
Another, better-known legend tells how the first Auersperg saved Emperor Charlemagne from the attack of a wild auroch and was rewarded with ennoblement.
An Ancient Origin?
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, another layer was added to these stories. Renaissance writers developed a tradition according to which the family traced its origins to antiquity, to the Roman-Japodian town of Aurupium, believed to have stood near present-day Turjak. The town was said to have been destroyed by Attila in 451. From its ruins, the ancestors of the Auerspergs supposedly built Lower Turjak, later known as the Old Castle.
The Accepted Genealogy
In the second half of the 17th century, the Carniolan polymath Janez (Johann Ludwig) Schönleben dismissed this Renaissance tradition of Roman ancestry as unfounded. Instead, he identified Odorik and Adolf as the earliest known members of the family, both descended from an otherwise unknown Auersperg born around 950.
According to Schönleben, Odorik built Cuccagna Castle in Friuli and founded the Friulian branch of the Auerspergs. Adolf, meanwhile, built Lower Turjak, while his sons Conrad, Adolf II, and Pilgrim constructed Upper Turjak, from which the Carniolan branch of the family was said to descend.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Schönleben’s account prevailed and became part of the family’s own tradition. The family’s acceptance of this genealogy is reflected in a gallery of ancestral portraits commissioned during the lifetime of Count Maria Josef Auersperg, before 1780. The portraits were displayed in the palatium across four interconnected rooms.
