Wartenstein Castle

Wartenstein Castle
Creation time :	12th Century
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	well preserved
Place:	Raach am Hochgebirge
Geographical location	47 ° 39 '2.2 " N , 15 ° 55' 8.7" E Coordinates: 47 ° 39 '2.2 " N , 15 ° 55' 8.7" E
Height:	765 m above sea level A.

The castle Wartenstein is a well-preserved castle in the same cadastral Wartenstein in the municipality Raach on high mountains in Gloggnitz in the district of Neunkirchen in the southern Lower Austria . The Höhenburg towers visibly over the Schwarzatal on a hill in front of the Great Otter (765 m) between Grasberg and Raachberg , directly on the state road 134. The castle is a listed building ( list entry ).

history

The original structure dates from the 12th century and included only keep , Palas , chapel and a small yard. The first expansion of the facility took place in the middle of the 13th century. The first gentlemen at the castle were Hermannus de Wartenstein, who was first mentioned in a document around 1190, and the Ministeriale Chunradus de Wartenstaine, who was mentioned in a document from 1220. In 1287 Heinrich von Stubenberg acquired the castle. Erchengerus de Wartenstein succeeded him as owner.

In the 14th century the castle came to the sovereign and was pledged several times into the 15th century, for example by Leopold III. to the Counts of Cilli . Around 1470, Emperor Friedrich III. the attachment to the Order of St. George Knights . After the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus took over the castle in 1487 without a fight, it fell back to the Habsburgs after his death in 1490 .

In 1529, Wartenstein Castle was destroyed during the first Turkish siege of Vienna . The entire rule of Wartenstein was purchased in 1609 by Georg Bernhard von Urschenbeck , who had been the tenant of the castle complex since 1547. Subsequently, significant renovations took place in the 1640s under the new owner Georg Andreas von Petschowitz (also Petschowitsch).

In 1720 the Neapolitan Counts Stella bought the complex, followed by the Caracciolo family . They did not live here, however, and the castle was devastated by the French in 1809, so that Wartenstein was already quite dilapidated when it was bought by the Liechtenstein family in 1870 . Franziska , Princess von und zu Liechtenstein, arranged for the facility to be renovated in the spirit of Romanticism.

In April 1945 the Russian-German front moved up to the castle; it was badly damaged by fighting. In 1957 the Swedish industrialist Axel Leonard Wenner-Gren bought it from the Liechtensteiners and dedicated it to his Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research of New York, for which it was once again restored and modernized. Today Burg Wartenstein is privately owned.

investment

The elongated courtyard, which is entered through a round gate in a gate tower , is bordered by an east wing with a tower at both ends; the northern one is laid out as a strong watchtower . In addition, a square, Romanesque keep, a Gothic chapel, the palace and the bastions are still well preserved.

Miscellaneous

According to legend, Wartenstein Castle was connected to the former Benedictine monastery Gloggnitz - today Gloggnitz Castle - by an underground passage, possibly an escape route . Underground passages were discovered there, but they have since collapsed.

literature

Georg Clam-Martinic: Castles & Palaces in Austria . Landesverlag in Veritas Verlag, Linz 1991 and Tosa Verlag, Vienna 1996, ISBN 978-3-85001-679-7 .
René Riegler: Castles, palaces and ruins in the Neunkirchen district . Self-published, 1996.
Herbert Pusterhofer: Castles and palaces around Gloggnitz . In: Stadtgemeinde Gloggnitz (Ed.): Gloggnitz 1094–1994 . Gloggnitz 1994.

Web links

Commons : Burg Wartenstein - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wartenstein Castle on the Raach website
Wartenstein Castle on burgenkunde.at
Photo of the castle
Entry via Burg Wartenstein to Burgen-Austria