Silver Pfennigs and Small Silver Coins of Europe in the Middle Ages

Steiermark
(Styria)
Styria (German: Steiermark; Slovenian: Štajerska) is a state or Bundesland, located in the southeast of Austria. In area, it is the
second largest of the nine Austrian states, covering 16,388 km². It borders Slovenia as well as the other Austrian states of Upper
Austria, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Burgenland, and Carinthia. The population (as of 2006) was 1,203,986. The capital city is Graz.
The history of Styria concerns the region roughly corresponding to the modern state of Styria from its settlement by Slavs in the
Dark Ages until the present. This mountainous and scenic region, which became a centre for mountaineering in the 19th century,
is often called the "Green March", because half of the area is covered with forests and one quarter with meadows, grasslands,
vineyards and orchards. Styria is also rich in minerals, soft coal and iron, which has been mined at Erzberg since the time of the
Romans. The Windisch Bueheln (Slovenske gorice) is a famous wine-producing district, stretching between Slovenia and Austria.
Styria was for long the most densely-populated and productive mountain region in Europe.
The Roman history of Styria is as part of Noricum and Pannonia, with a Celtic population of the Taurisci. During the great migrations,
various Germanic tribes traversed the region using the river valleys and low passes, but about 600 CE the Slavs took possession
and settled.
When Styria came under the hegemony of Charlemagne as a part of Karantania (Carinthia), erected as a border territory against
the Avars and Slavs, there was a large influx of Bavarii and other Christianized Germanic peoples, whom the bishops of Salzburg
and the patriarchs of Aquileia kept faithful to Rome. Bishop Virgilius of Salzburg (745-84), was largely instrumental in establishing
a church hierarchy in the Duchy and gained for himself the name of "Apostle of Karantania". In 811 Charlemagne made the Drave
river the boundary between the Dioceses of Salzburg and Aquileia.
The March of Styria was created in the Duchy of Carinthia in the late 10th century as a defence against the Magyars. It was ruled
by a margravial dynasty called the Otakars. The march of Styria was raised to become a duchy by the Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa in 1180 after the fall of Henry the Lion of Bavaria.
With the death of Ottokar the first line of rulers of Styria became extinct; the region fell successively to the Babenberg family,
rulers of Austria, as stipulated in the Georgenberg Pact; after their extinction to the control of Hungary (1254-60); to King Ottokar
of Bohemia; in 1276 to the Habsburgs, who provided it with Habsburgs for Styrian dukes during the years 1379-1439 and 1564-
1619.
At the time of the Ottoman invasions in the 16th and 17th centuries the land suffered severely and was depopulated. The Turks
made incursions into Styria nearly twenty times; churches, monasteries, cities, and villages were destroyed and plundered, while
the population was either killed or carried away into slavery.