It is located near Feldkirchen on a hillside above the road to Lake Ossiach.

The fortress was mentioned in an 1166 deed when the Nuremberg burgrave Conrad II of Raabs sold it to the Franconian Bishops of Bamberg, who then held large estates in the Duchy of Carinthia.

Prägrad served as an administrative seat of Bamberg ministeriales, controlling the traffic on the road along the southern shore of Lake Ossiach to Villach.

Upon the death of Count Ulrich II in 1456, it was seized by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III who leased it to the Bishops of Gurk.

The remains of a Zwinger laid out about 1400 are visible to the southeast of the complex