Maissau Castle
| Maissau Castle | ||
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 Maissau Castle against the Manhartsberg |
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| Creation time : | 12th century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | well preserved | |
| Standing position : | Ministeriale | |
| Place: | Maissau | |
| Geographical location | 48 ° 34 '19.7 " N , 15 ° 49' 27.4" E | |
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The castle Maissau is located in the western part of the Lower Austrian municipality Maissau , in the district of Hollabrunn . The history of the well-preserved hill fort goes back to the 12th century. It is one of the properties of the Abensperg and Traun family .
history
The oldest as well as the most important architectural monument, formerly a castle and fortress, is a creation of the Middle Ages. It is historically recorded that in 1122 Rudolf and Rozinus von Maissau (Missov or Mihsouw) are mentioned. The Maissauers were a powerful family of ministers . Among the best-known members were Otto I and his son Stephan, who had the dignity of the highest heir in Austria and who were always distinguished by their loyalty to their sovereign and special bravery. The possessions of the Lords of Maissau ranged from the Wachau to Pöggstall, Zwettl and down to the wine country. The male line of the family died out with the death of Otto IV von Maissau in 1440. He is buried with his wife in the Aggsbach Charterhouse .
The castle fell to the Lords of Eckartsau by way of inheritance . Georg von Eckartsau died as early as 1491 without a male heir. His daughter Agnes married Otto von Zelking . Their daughter Magdalena inherited the Maissau rule in 1526 and married Sebastian Herr von Traun. The son from this marriage, Adam, received the Maissau rule as a maternal inheritance in 1537. In 1653 the family was raised to the rank of imperial count.
Thus the Counts of Abensperg and Traun have been the owners of the castle and the Maissau estate without interruption since 1526.
Their current possessions are around Maissau, Wolkersdorf in the Weinviertel , in the Waldviertel and in the industrial district , with Rappottenstein and Petronell in particular .
In 1645 the castle and the fortifications of the city fell victim to the Swedish storm.
Today the castle offers the viewer two different images. In terms of the city, the south wing has been shaped by the Romanesque-Neo-Gothic style since the renovation at the end of the 19th century. The older part facing the forest dates from the 15th century and still reveals early Gothic construction, especially the guard and defense tower. The beautiful castle forest is located here.
The entrance to the forest extends into the cityscape, where it finally joins the end of the “Quince Walk” (remarkable the Johann Nepomuk statue from 1773 and the stations of the cross by C. Puzzòlo from 1994) fraternized with the “Flag of the 7 Upright”, namely with the wine cellars, who have gathered as a boozy sentinel “Am Berg”.
Art history
The stronghold with the keep was in the 13./14. Built in the 16th century and expanded in the 16th and 17th centuries; The renovation was carried out around 1870 (largely completed in 1879?), According to plans by Johann Romano von Rings and August Schwendenwein von Lanauberg .
Outer bailey
Access from the south to the former of military trenches protected Vorburg consists of a gate tower with lateral economic wings. The two-storey gate tower was built in 1879 on the site of an early modern predecessor building, with a hipped roof on sloping consoles and coupled arched openings with balustrades on the upper floor.
On the city side there are walled-in, sculpted coats of arms in rectangular, barbed frames. On the left the alliance coat of arms Abensperg-Traun, marked 1563, on the right the alliance coat of arms Traun-Polheim, marked 1583, as well as a middle coat of arms with a rich cartouche, frame marked 1460. On both sides of the gate tower there are the elongated, low two-storey service wings. The eastern one, with a steep gable roof and lancet barrel vault with plastered ridges on the ground floor, was built in the 17th century. Above the portal on the west side there is a cartouche with the alliance coat of arms Traun-Zinzendorf, marked 1638. The western wing, with coupled round windows and polygonal bay windows, was rebuilt around 1896. The outer bailey was connected to the stronghold by a defensive wall that laterally bounded the courtyard (direct continuation of the city fortifications). In the north-western entrance to the stronghold is a terrace above a small hexagonal spiral staircase tower with a pyramid roof placed on the rock face, marked 1879. Abensperg-Traun family has a coat of arms above the portal. In the upper floor of the tower there are window panes with coats of arms of the ruling families.
Hochburg
It is an irregular complex from different construction times, surrounded by remains of the medieval fortifications. A small, almost square courtyard that continues to the south in a hook shape. Determined by the extensive structural changes in the 2nd half of the 19th century.
The oldest part of the mighty early Gothic keep in the northeast corner was built in the 13th century. The attic level has four polygonal tower-like corner bay windows from the 16th century. The steep hipped roof and the graceful bay roofs were built around 1870; On the east side there are early Gothic windows with bulging frames and foundry bay windows on corbels; Inside there is a high groin vault on delicate consoles, created in the 13th century.
The two-storey wing adjoining it to the south belongs to the medieval complex. On the ground floor the Gothic hall from the 14th century, with ribbed vaults on round pillars (2: 3 axes). It has been a chapel since 1964. Above is a former castle theater (probably 16th / 17th century) which was demolished in 1870. In 1920 a stately staircase was built.
The northern front of the courtyard is formed by a two- and three-storey wing, presumably late medieval in the core, 16th century facade, with sgraffito ashlar on the upper storey as well as a covered, wood-covered corridor on wide-span arched wall pillar arcades on the ground floor. The stone fountain with the monumental, water-spouting dolphin was built in the 17th century. The western wing was closed off by the two-storey gate tower above the northern entrance to the castle, the outer front of which was brought into its current form around 1900, with a steep hipped roof, raised over a console-supported flat bay window, the profiled, late Gothic segmented arched gate in a strongly transposed, rectangular field labeled 1478 above engraved tetragram and above in a barbed rectangular field carved coat of arms Abensperg-Traun inscribed 1557 .
Southern continuation of the complex in a somewhat lower, almost U-shaped two- and three-storey wing from the 16th and 17th centuries, extensively remodeled at the end of the 19th century, the facade facing the outer bailey (to the south) faded in front of one hip, new performance of the east of the two flanking ones Round towers of the 16th / 17th centuries Century, the west, damaged by earthquakes, greatly shortened. On the western front there is a mighty gate tower from the late 19th century based on the shape of the medieval keep, and a three-flight staircase in the monumental staircase. South wing facing the courtyard with two-storey, groin-vaulted column-supported arcades from the 16th century, on the parapets with a simple rhombus decor.
The castle and the city in the present
The castle courtyard is only opened on the 1st weekend in Advent so that the traditional Maissau Castle Advent can be held. As part of this event, you have the opportunity to visit the castle courtyard and the former stables.
Furthermore, once a year a classical concert takes place in the festival hall as part of the festival in the Weinviertel (concerts at castles in the Weinviertel).
Other events take place in the courtyard on special occasions, including the fashion show (1999) and some honorary events (the pastor's jubilee).
Web links
- Entry about Maissau Castle on Lower Austria Burgen online - Institute for Reality Studies of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times, University of Salzburg
- Entry via Maissau Castle to Burgen-Austria