Spittal an der Drau

Spittal grew where the road to the Katschberg Pass crossed the Lieser in Upper Carinthia. Its name recalls the hospital and chapel founded here by the counts of Ortenburg, recorded in 1191. The neighbouring settlement received market rights in 1242. The Ortenburg estates later passed to the counts of Celje and, after their line ended in 1456, to the Habsburg emperor Friedrich III.

Ottoman raiders devastated the district in 1478, followed by Hungarian occupation and further hardship. From 1533 the counts of Salamanca-Ortenburg built a residence on the market square in the style of an Italian palazzo, later known as Schloss Porcia. The Porcia family acquired it in 1662. French troops besieged Spittal in 1797, and in 1809 it passed with Upper Carinthia to the Illyrian Provinces before returning to Austria.