It is located within the eponymous valley of the Drava river, on the southern slope of the Ankogel Group of the Hohe Tauern range, west of the district's capital Spittal an der Drau.

The Lurnfeld valley around the Roman city of Teurnia is a very old settlement area, in ancient times called vallis Lurna.

Count Ulrich II was even elevated to a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor Sigismund, but left no heirs when he was killed by his bitter rival Ladislaus Hunyadi in 1456.

He marched against Carinthia from his Tyrolean residence at Bruck Castle, crossing the border at Oberdrauburg and occupying Spittal to lay siege to the Ortenburg fortress.

He was finally defeated in 1460 and had to sign the Treaty of Pusarnitz at episcopal Feldsberg Castle, whereby he renounced all Carinthian estates in favour of the Austrian House of Habsburg.