Graz [antikvár]

A GLANCE BACKWARDS Graz is an old city and, as with many other cities, this works entirely to its advantage (as long as she knows to take care of her venerable aspect, which is precisely the case with Graz). The provincial capital of Styria cele- brated her 850th imniversary, to be exact, in 1978. In point of fact, the city was mentioned for the first time in the year 1128 in a rather controversial document. Various hypotheses exist concerning the origin of her name, but only one is valid enough. From the time they are school children, the inhabitants of Graz learn the legend which tells of the origin of the city's name. When Bavarian colonists, who had been called into the country by the Slavonians to help them fend off the Avars, were asked how the construction of the city was coming along, they answered, "G'rats, so g'rats" ("Alright, alright"). From this expression came the term "Graz", which still in the last century, however, was called "Gratz". At that time, there was heated discussion among the distinguished citi- zens of the town about how the name of the city should finally be written: "Graz" or "Gratz". In truth, however, "Graz" derives from the Slavic "gradec", which means "little castle", (probably the for- tification on the Schlossberg was a Slavic stronghold at one time). Right from the start, the enemy came from the Orient. It is from there that the Avars came, a people of nomadic horsemen, bringers of death and destruction. Emperor Charlemagne annihilated them toward the end of the VHIth century. In the IXth century, though, a new and dangerous enemy loomed up, the Magyars who ceased their incursions only after their decisive defeat at Lechfeld in 955. Emperor Otho the Great created the Karantania March to defend the Duchy of the same name which the city of Graz was once a part of but the most important locality of this March was not yet Graz, but rather Hengistburg near Wildon, a legendary fortress no longer extant which, for a long time, was thought to be located in Graz. In the Xlth century, the Traungaus, a family of Baver- ian counts, arrived in the Karantania March. From their main castle, Steyr, they took on the name of Margraves of Steyr. This is how the name of Steiermark (Styria) was born. Steyr today, in any case, no longer belongs to the Green March, but instead to Upper Austria. The Karantan- ia March succeeded from Carinthia, thus becoming Styria. The minute and fortified town, which was Graz, grew thanks to the immigration of Bavarian colonist. It is for this reason that during the first centuries of her existence, the city was referred to as "Bavarian Graz" to distinguish it from "Slavonian Gratz" which is situated in the present-day Jugoslavia. In the second half of the Xllth century, the settlement already housed a market and, some time later, she was raised to the standing of city. From her very beginning, the city with its fortress, which looms up on the Schlossberg, proved to be an indispensable bulwark toward the Orient. As soon as the Xllth century, the city became the provincial capital of Styria by order of Otkar III, Margrave of the House of Traungaus. The Otkars - as the Traungaus also called themselves, from the name of the four representatives of the family - met with a sad end. Count Otkar IV, who in 1180 became the first Duke of Styria, died of leprosy at an early age. Having had no children, he named the Babenberg family as the heirs to his lands. And so it was that in 1192, Leopold V of Austria, of the House of Babenberg, assumed the governing of Styria. He too, chose Graz as residence of his princedom. Leopold V did not have a long while to taste his posses- sion of Styria: in Graz celebrating the Christmas of 1194, while out riding, his horse slipped on icy ground crushing him under its weight. Medical science was unable to save him and he died on December 31 of that same year. As with many other centres, the urban development of Graz, too, was determined by the Ancient Roman road, which in the Middle Ages still played an important role in the traffic of trade. The road, however, did not cross, as we might suppose, that which in the time following will become the city, but instead passed near the right bank of the Mur, along the slopes of the hilly region called Pla- butsch. This, then, was the first important commercial road of the city. Afterwards, when trade with the Orient became pro- gressively more active, a new road, which from the west pointed eastward, acquired importance. The road crossed the city, passed over the Mur, continued through the present-day Murgasse, and then climbed toward the moun- tain in the Sporgasse.