The earliest period of Tuštanj Manor near Moravče is still largely unexplored. The heraldic plaque above the entrance states that the manor was constructed in 1490, but not by whom. More light on its past is shed after 1610, when it was taken over by Martin Berthold Schwab von Lichtenberg. About half a century later (between 1667 and 1671), when the castle was already in poor condition, it was restored and rebuilt by Franz Bernard Baron von Lichtenberg and his wife Anna Felicita Gall from Rosegg. Franz Bernard was a provincial and military commissioner in Upper Carniola, the Karst, Pivka, and the Istrian quarter as well as a stable master that also groomed the horses of the provincial estates. Testifying to this is the above-mentioned inscription on the heraldic plaque, above which are carved the coats of arms of the Lichtenbergs and the Galls. The inscription in its entirety states: TVFTSTAIN WAR AVFGEBAVT IM 1490 IAR WEILEN ABER DAS GSCHLOS ETWAS WENG GEBAVT GEWESN ALS HAT DER WOLLGEBORNE HERR HERR FRANCZ BERNHARDT FREIHER VON LIECHTENBERG HERR AVF TVFTSTAIN ORTENEG VND OTTENSTAIN & EINER LÖB. LANTSCHAFT IN CRAIN IBER DERO IM WARTGELT HALTENDE GERISTE PFERDT WOLLBESTELTER RITMAISTER AVCH LANDT VND KRIEGSCOMMISSARIVS IN OBERCRAIN KARST POIK VND ISTERREICHER VIERTEL & VND SEINE FRAV GEMALLIN ANNA FELICITAS GEBORNE GALLIN ZV RVDOLFSEG FREIN ZVR GOTTES ER VND LOW IM IAHR 1667 IBERBAVEN VND BIS ENDE 1671 IAHRS VÖLLIG RENOVIEREN VND VERFERTIGEN LASSEN.
Franz Bernard, already holding the title of Baron von Lichtenberg when the castle restoration took place, was born “merely” as Schwab von Lichtenberg. Whereas the Schwab family is believed to have Frankish roots, it is not known when it moved to Carniola. Heinrich Schollmayer-Lichtenberg, who investigated the origin of his adoptive family in the early twentieth century, sought the first Schwabs in the twelfth century, but with little reliable evidence. In 1660, Emperor Leopold I called the Schwab-Lichtenbergs the “ancient lineage of noble knights”; however, it is not clear whether he was referring to the Schwabs or the Lichtenbergs, or perhaps to both. The most reliable detail is that in 1519 Johann Schwab married the last representative of the medieval Lichtenbergs, whose original eponymous castle stood in the immediate vicinity of Bogenšperk. The Schwabs subsequently also assumed the Lichtenbergs’ family name and thenceforth presented themselves with the double family name Schwab von Lichtenberg. According to some sources, the change took place in 1564 or perhaps more likely in 1573, when Archduke Karl allowed the Schwabs to combine their coat of arms with that of the extinct Lichtenbergs. The quartered coat of arms was conceived, featuring the Schwabs’ blue lion in the first and fourth fields and the Lichtenbergs’ red eagle in the second and the third fields.
On January 5th, 1637, Emperor Ferdinand II raised Franz Bernard as well as his brother Johann Georg and cousin Franz to the rank of barons—however, without issuing the baronial diploma, which was perhaps due to his death a month later. Therefore, Emperor Leopold I “baronized” the Schwab-Lichtenbergs again in 1660, with the authorization to relinquish the first family name, Schwab, and present themselves as Barons von Lichtenberg. Soon afterward, Franz Bernard embarked on renovating Tuštanj Castle, already using his new title in the inscription above the entrance. Had he undertaken the renovation work a few years later, he would have already used the comital title, which Emperor Leopold conferred upon him in 1688. The coat of arms most likely remained unchanged after that year because the Counts von Lichtenberg continued to use the coat of arms that was granted to them in 1660.

Sources:
Stopar, Ivan: Grajske stavbe v osrednji Sloveniji. I. Gorenjska. Območje Kamnika in Kamniške Bistrice (vol. 7). Ljubljana 1997, p. 146.
Lavrič, Leon: Odsev blišča moravških gradov. Moravče, 2004, p. 125.