Instructions of Franz Karl von Hohenwart to the Steward of his Ravne near Pivka Estate

SLOVENIA, June 30 - The estate Ravne (Raunach) near Pivka, located some 20 km south of Postojna in the Košana valley, was first mentioned in written sources in 1313. Its earliest owner is believed to have been Franciscus von Raunach, who was granted the estate, also called ”paradise of the Karst”, as a reward from the then Patriarch of Aquileia. Well-known members of the family in the mid-15 century, the brothers Martin I and Jakob II of Raunach, were both high-ranking office holders in the Karst and Istria, serving Emperor Friederick III and even accompanying him to his coronation in Aachen and Rome. One of the most prominent owners of the estate was the knight Bernhardin Raunach (c. 1450-c. 1531), Governor of Postojna and Court Councillor to Emperor Maximilian I. He initiated the construction of Šilentabor (Ger. Schillertabor), one of the largest anti-Ottoman fortifications in present-say Slovenian territory and served as a military commander in the war against Venice between 1508 and 1516. At tournaments, Bernhardin competed against the famous knight Caspar von Lamberg fifteen times, most often with indecisive outcome, though he did manage to throw the celebrated knight off his horse.

In 1617, the Ravne estate became the property of the Trieste patrician family De Leo through a contract of sale. The family’s roots are said to have gone back to Rome, and their main field of activity was the salt trade. In 1644, after the death of Jeremias De Leo, the Ravne estate was divided among his five sons, who in 1661 were all raised to the rank of barons with the predicate »Freiherr von und zu Lewenberg und Schlifeneckh, Herr zu Raunach und Neudorf« by Emperor Leopold I. One of the brothers, Johann Baptist Baron De Leo (1629-1694), purchased the shares of the estate from two of his siblings, and became owner of the three-fifths of the estate. He left it to his nephew Franz Sigmund (1654-1712), who went on to acquire a further fifth of the estate. In 1712, these four-fifths of the estate were inherited by his eldest daughter, Maria Anna Charlotte (1696-1781). In the 18th century, the remaining fifth of the estate was through marriage acquired by the baronial family of Kottulinsky. 

Franz Karl von Hohenwart (1691−1772) was born to Georg Sigmund and Viktoria Sidonia, née Baroness Mordaxt von Portendorf, at Kolovec Castle (Ger. Gerlachstein) near Kamnik. His family belonged to the old noble house of Hohenwarts, believed to have originated in Bavaria and to have been related to the earlier Counts of Andechs. One branch of the Hohenwart family settled in Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola in the 12th century. In the early 15th century, Hans von Hohenwart served as governor of the County in the March and Möttling and was also the owner of Krupa (Ger. Krupp) Castle. By the mid-15th century, his son Erhard had also acquired Kolovec Castle, which thereafter served as the ancestral seat of the Kolovec branch of the family until 1855. In 1479, when his inheritance was being divided, Erhard's son Stefan received Kolovec and Rabensberg in Styria. He was succeeded by his son Ludvik (†1535), grandson Abel († after 1568), great-grandson Cosmus (†1629), and his son Johann Georg (†1665). In the second half of the 17th century, the partition of the family’s property led to the emergence of family branches named after the castles of Kolovec, Perovo and Špitalič.

Between 1703 and 1713, Franz Karl attended the Jesuit grammar school in Ljubljana, completed his higher education, and read law at the University of Salzburg. In 1714, he inherited the Špitalič estate (Ger. Neuthal) in Tuhinj valley after his uncle. A year later, he embarked on a journey across Germany, came all the way to London, then continued his journey through the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium), France and Italy. After returning home in 1718, he was appointed a member of the Carniolan Court of Nobles. In 1719, he married Maria Anna Charlotte, the Baroness De Leo von Lewenberg. In 1721, he sold Špitalič to his younger brother, while Maria Anna Charlotte brought the Ravne estate into the marriage. Their successor was their son Georg Jakob, while all four of their other sons entered the Jesuit order. One of them, Sigismund Anton (1730-1820), served at the Tuscan court in Florence as tutor to the future Austrian Emperor Francis I. In 1791, he was appointed Bishop of Trieste, in 1794 Bishop of St. Pölten, and in the years between 1803 and 1820 he served as the Archbishop of Vienna.

Franz Karl von Hohenwart acquired the Kolovec estate in 1727 and went on to serve as the Governor of Rijeka from 1740 to 1747. He then became a councillor at the Representation and Chamber for Carniola (Ger. Repräsentation und Cammer für Krain) and a member of the commission for ecclesiastical and charitable affairs. In 1743, he started an extensive renovation of the Ravne manor, transforming it into a residence typical of the late Baroque style. Upon its completion, Franz Karl and his wife gifted the manor, together with the estate, to their son Georg Jakob in 1755. At that time, four-fifths of the Ravne estate paid a contribution tax amounting to 368 Gulden, while the Kolovec estate paid 115 Gulden. In 1767, Empress Maria Theresia elevated Franz Karl to the hereditary rank of count, granting him the title »Graf von und zu Hochenwart, Herr zu Gerlachstein, Rabensberg und Raunach«.

Following the death of Franz Karl in 1772, his property was inherited by his only son, the provincial councillor Georg Jakob Count Hohenwart (1724-1808), who subsequently purchased the remining fifth of the Ravne estate and become its sole owner. He was succeeded by his son, Franz Joseph Hanibal Count Hohenwart (1771-1833), who went down in history as a renowned naturalist, the author of one of the first guides to the Postojna Cave and of a study on the drainage of the Ljubljana Marsh, and the actual founder of the Carniolan Provincial Museum, the parent institution from which many later institutions developed, including the National Museum of Slovenia, Slovenian Ethnographic Museum, Slovenian Museum of Natural History, and the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia. After his death, Ravne passed to his nephew, Karl Sigmund Count Hohenwart (1824-1899), a politician who served as Austrian prime minister in 1871, and the estate remained in the family's possession until 1906.

The Ravne estate had subjects in six villages in the Pivka region and in sixteen villages located on the southern part of Brkini in Čičarija. When Franz Karl took over the managing of the estate from his wife in 1721, he wrote instruction for the estate's steward. Owing to Franz Karl's numerous obligations, his limited time, and the estate's distance from Ljubljana and Rijeka (a carriage journey of eight hours each way), a steward was hired to manage the day-to-day affairs on behalf of his landlord. Franz Karl's instructions became a model for all subsequent estate's stewards and were only partially revised thereafter. During Franz Karl’s ownership of the estate, several stewards were employed: Andreas Opeka (1724−1725), Johann Georg Reppitsch (1725−1729), Johann Georg Fada (1729−1732), Johann Georg Lenz (1732−1743), Johann Baptist Schwarz (1743−1754, 1755−1782) and Franz Anton Steyer (1754−1755).

The document presented here as this month's archivalia reveals the relations between the owner and the steward of this feudal seigniory, as well as the obligations that stewards had in managing such an estate. The steward had to pledge loyalty, obedience and diligence in the management of the estate. He was required to reside in the Ravne manor, taking care of the residence as well as of the estate’s outbuildings and surrounding grounds. He was expected to lock doors, prevent any sort of damage, ensure fire safety, and maintain good relations with the neighbours. He was obligated to protect the estate's subjects from any injustices committed against them by other lords. He also had to keep accurate records of the income, expenses, and obligations of the estate's subjects, collect their regular payments, and deliver them to the owner. He was required to conduct both civil and minor criminal legal proceedings in an impartial manner and to keep detailed records of them. He was also expected to prevent any illegal logging and grazing of other owners’ livestock on the estate. Hunting and fishing were permitted only to the owner, and the steward was required to punish the offenders. He was in charge of the maintenance and cultivation of the fields, pastures and vineyards, of harvest, grape harvest, storage and sale of the produce. As far as manorial labour services were concerned, the steward was asked to be fair, avoiding unjustified burdens or exemptions, and in any case, subjects were permitted to compensate from their absence from labour services in cash or in kind. He had to prevent fragmentation of subordinated farms upon the death of the owners and try to keep farms as intact as possible for economic benefit. The steward pledged to act in the interests of the lord of the estate and to carry out his instructions, for which, after taking an oath, he was accountable both to the lord and to God.

Igor Gardelin