Feistritz Castle

The castle complex above Feistritz am Wechsel

The Burg Feistritz is southeast above the village in the municipality Feistritz am Wechsel in the district of Neunkirchen in Lower Austria . The entire complex of the castle is under monument protection ( list entry ).

history

The Veste Feistritz was probably built by ministerials in the second quarter of the 12th century . The castle was owned by the Pottendorfer from the 14th century until 1488 and the Zinzendorfer until 1537. The plant went to the Rottal family in 1547 and to the Lords of Pergen in 1681. From 1796 to 1815 the castle had changing owners, with Joseph Freiherr Dietrich von Dietrichsberg in 1815. In 1922 Maximilian Mautner bought the castle and underwent extensive renovations with the architect Marischka until 1924. An army museum was set up in the castle, the holdings of which are now in the Army History Museum in Vienna. After 1960 the facility was adapted to a conference center.

In 1485, 1529 ( First Siege of the Turks ) and 1683 ( Second Siege of the Turks ) the castle was besieged in vain.

The north-south oriented narrow rectangular complex is enclosed with a circular wall. The Romanesque palace stands on the narrow northern side with a walled-in keep protruding to the northeast on the outside. Only later were the hunger tower and the southern hall built into the wall. A late Gothic reconstruction took place around 1500, of which three round corner towers have been preserved. From 1685 there was a generous renovation with a relocation of the initially eastern entrance to the west with a gate tower and a drawbridge. Outside the castle, a multi-storey wing with three mighty dormers was built on the north-western curtain wall . Joseph Dietrich had the entire complex renewed in the Romanesque style and a palace theater in the north wing and a park outside.