500 Schilling Hochosterwitz

Hochosterwitz, the medieval fortress perched on a 160-meter dolomite outcrop in Carinthia, was sold in 1571 to Georg Khevenhüller, whose family undertook the construction of its famous sequence of fourteen fortified gates — each designed so that attackers breaching one would be funneled into a killing zone before the next. The castle famously withstood Ottoman raids during the 16th-century incursions into Carinthia without ever being taken by force.

This was among the final issues in Austria's long-running silver Schilling commemorative program before the country adopted the euro in 2002.