Castle Pišece, Slovenia - building history and wood economy revealed by dendrochronology, dendroprovenancing and historical sources

Čufar, Katarina (author), Bizjak, Matjaž (author), Kitek Kuzman, Manja (author), Merela, Maks (author), Grabner, Michael (author), Brus, Robert (author)

Castle Pišece, located in SE Slovenia near the border with Croatia, is thought to have been built in the 12th/13th century as one in the line of Salzburg fortresses on the then SE border of the Holy Roman Empire. During thorough restoration that started in 2005, its wooden constructions became accessible for dendrochronological investigations. We collected representative samples from floor or ceiling constructions in most of the rooms in the castle. Dendrochronology helped us to identify felling dates of wood and to propose probable years of reconstructions in 1515, 1578, 1644, 1697, 1752, 1758, 1775 and 1878. The dating showed that the constructions in the presumed Romanesque and Renaissance parts of the building were not as old as expected, whereas those in the supposedly Baroque part of the castle were older than assumed. The selection of wood species used for constructions varied over time. Constructions with end dates 1515%1697 were made of oak (Quercus petraea and Q. robur), those dated to 1752 of silver fir (Abies alba), those dated to 1758 of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) and those dated to 1878 of common beech (Fagus sylvatica). Comparison of forestry archives and vegetation in the area showed that most of the timber could have originated from nearby forests; only silver fir had to be transported from sites that were at least 20 km away from the castle. Cross-dating of tree-ring series of oak elements with two reference chronologies from Slovenia and two from Austria confirmed the great likelihood that the wood used mostly originated from Slovenia. This indicates that dendroprovenancing, not used in the area before, could also be used SE of the Alps. Both the existing archival documents and dendrochronology indicate that woodworks have taken place every few decades in some periods. The dendrochronological dates can be partly linked to reports on earthquakes (especially the devastating one in 1511), rebellions and year marks carved on the stone plaques.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Tree-ring analysis, Cultural heritage, Oak = Quercus sp., Silver fir = Abies alba, Archival documents
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Year: 2014
• Number of pages: Str. 357-363
• Numbering: Vol. 32, no. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-83466
• UDC: 630*561.24
• ISSN on article: 1125-7865
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2297481
• Publication date in RUL: 17.08.2016

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Dendrochronologia
• Shortened title: Dendrochronologia
• Publisher: Instituto Italiano di dendrochronologia
• ISSN: 1125-7865
• COBISS.SI-ID: 46910464

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: dendrokronologija, analiza branik, kulturna dediščina, Grad Pišece