Völkermarkt

Völkermarkt stands in the Drava valley of southern Carinthia, north of the Karawanken mountains. A trading post was established here around 1090 by the descendants of Count Siegfried of Sponheim, and a church followed at the direction of the archbishop of Salzburg. Duke Bernhard von Spanheim ordered a bridge over the Drava in 1217 and rebuilt the settlement in 1231. Granted town privileges in the thirteenth century, it became an important market for iron from the surrounding mines.