Weißenburg Castle (Pielachtal)

Weissenburg Castle
Weißenburg Castle, photographed from the Annakreuz (2009)
Alternative name (s):	Weißenburg ruins (old name)
Castle type :	Höhenburg, rocky location
Conservation status:	Preserved essential parts
Place:	Frankenfels
Geographical location	47 ° 59 ′ 58 ″  N , 15 ° 21 ′ 19 ″  E Coordinates: 47 ° 59 ′ 58 ″  N , 15 ° 21 ′ 19 ″  E

The Castle White Castle is a medieval castle , located at the village of White Castle , in the White Castle area in the municipality of Frankenfels , District St. Pölten in Lower Austria .

location

The rock castle is located in the upper Pielach valley , southwest of Kirchberg an der Pielach on a ship-shaped, light limestone cliff , from which it owes its name and is surrounded on two sides by the waters of Pielach and Weißenbach . At the eastern foot of the Burgberg, the Weißenbach flows into the Pielach. The castle complex can be reached from the north via a ditch .

history

Middle Ages and Modern Times

Engraving by Georg Matthäus Vischer, 1672

Due to its strategically favorable location, the castle rock was likely to have been fortified in the early Middle Ages . From the so-called Weissenberg you had control over the Pielach valley towards Schwarzenbach an der Pielach and over the Nattertal towards Frankenfels .

The history of the Weißenburg can be documented back to the 12th century, but the foundation is likely to have been a few centuries earlier. The first owners are the Rabensteiner, a branch of the Staufer (Hohenstaufen), who have called themselves Weißenburger since the 13th century, on the 250 m high rock at the confluence of the Weißenbach in the Pielach. Wichard or Weichard I. at Rabenstein Castle southwest of St. Pölten in Lower Austria, who called himself von Hohenstauf, owned princely fiefs in Frankenfels even before 1230 , and in 1267 a branch of the Rabensteiner named itself after Weizzenberg (Weissenberg). Marquard von Weizzenberg, Abbot of Göttweig Monastery from 1316 to 1323, also comes from this family .

The last Weissenberger, Leopold, probably died between 1365 and 1381. His legacy was disputed between the Liechtenstein , Pottendorf and Wallsee families . In 1382 the bishop confirmed the patronage right of the newly founded castle chapel to Count Heinrich von Rauchstein , but Duke Albrecht II decided in 1388 that one third of the castle belong to Hans von Liechtenstein and two thirds to Friedrich and Albrecht von Pottendorf . Since only a third of the castle was sovereign feudal and the rest was freely owned , the ownership structure became a bit confusing in the 15th century. In 1494 the Lords of Kling had the castle in their sole possession. After 1526 Weissenberg came to the Losensteiner on the Schallaburg , after which in 1592 the South Tyrolean Knights von Concin were owners.

During the unsuccessful peasant uprisings in Lower Austria against the administrative system of the landlords at the end of the 16th century, in which the landlord Christian Haller in Puchenstuben was also significantly involved, the castle acted as a defensive system during the feudal period .

In 1613 the manor fell to Sigmund von Malenthein zu Plankenstein and in 1635 to the Counts of Tattenbach. Around 1648 the castle was enlarged under Gotthard Graf von Tattenbach . A stone coat of arms and an inscription indicate this. He sold the castle to Johann Baptist Freiherr von Kunitz in 1655. This united Weissenberg with his property in Kirchberg an der Pielach and concentrated the administration there. During the Great Turkish War of 1683, around 300 residents of the area found protection from the Ottoman troops who devastated the upper Pielach valley. With the expulsion of the Turks from Central Europe, however, the castle lost its military importance and was abandoned.

In 1751 Baron Johann Georg von Grechtler bought the lords of Weißenburg, Kirchberg an der Pielach, Tradigist, Mainburg and Salau and with the purchase of the lords of Friedau and Rabenstein an der Pielach became the large landowner in the upper Pielach valley. After his death in 1780, his son Baron Georg Anton von Grechtler inherited the entire property.

Decay

The Weißenburg, still in ruins around 1900, photographed from the Anna cross

In the course of the roof tax and the resulting heavy burden on the owners, all the roofs of the Weissenburg were removed around 1790. This caused the castle to deteriorate rapidly. Another reason may be the fact that most of the upper Pielach Valley was a rulership at this time and other mansion buildings, such as Fridau Castle or the castle in Kirchberg an der Pielach , offered more comfort at that time.

The Weißenburg lost further importance with the end of the hereditary subordination and the liberation of the peasants in the revolutionary year of 1848 , when most of the territory became peasant property. The owners of Weißenburg and Kirchberg an der Pielach remained identical until 1932.

Since Prince Philipp Salm-Horstmar , who belonged to Coesfeld Castle in Westphalia, became the owner of Weissenburg after 1938 , the Russian occupying power considered the ruins in Austria to be German property after the Second World War (1939–1945), so that they were only after the Austrian State Treaty 1955 was returned to the previous owner. This sold them to the Austrian Federal Forests .

Reconstruction and current use

The Weißenburg has been privately owned by two families since 1975. Since then, it has been renovated and protected from deterioration. The first step was to uncover the walls. The work took several years, not least because, with a few exceptions, the excavation was carried out without construction machinery. The rubble cones were sometimes up to four meters high. The first re-habitable building was the gate tower, behind which the facility is located. A few years later, the renovation work on the west wing of the Palas was completed. As a supplement, the connection to the keep was rebuilt in the following years .

Work on the castle chapel began in the mid-1990s . The tower and the sacristy were restored, the latter being a sacred space. The main part of the chapel fell into the valley in the 20th century, as its south wall was too close to the edge of the rock. This part has been excavated since 2007, as a crypt is believed to be under it. The chapel was consecrated again in 2000. The current major project is the south wing of the Palas, in which a large ballroom and a cellar partially carved into the rock have already been renovated and made usable again. In 2000, the castle chapel of St. John the Baptist was inaugurated by his Eminence Franz Cardinal König .

Every year in September, the Frankenfels Castle Talk takes place at the castle - a cultural event of the community under the leadership of Bernhard Gamsjäger , which primarily deals with the local customs and characteristics of the area.

To this day the castle has an autonomous supply. Water comes from its own well, electricity is generated by a diesel generator. Solar systems complement the lighting system. The interior is kept in the "old" style, wood paneling, coffered ceilings and historical objects adorn many living rooms. In winter these are heated by numerous chimneys. Much of the furniture was made by the current castle owners themselves, including the organ in the castle chapel.

Overview of the plant

The gate tower in the west leads to the 3700 m² castle complex on the Weißenbacher side. In the east there was a second small entrance that has now almost disappeared.

The main entrance leads through the Zwinger , which is towered over by the keep and older parts of the palace , into the actual castle. A gate system made of red marble separates the outer castle from the stronghold. Behind the gate is the tower of the former castle chapel . From the chapel only a few parts of the wall with Gothic windows in the northern part are preserved, the rest fell into the Pielach in the 19th century. A part of the castle courtyard has a cellar and was partly used as a cistern . In the north and south are the heavily dilapidated farm wings.

The hall and the keep form the core of the castle. The large knight's hall and the living area are located here. The keep, with its walls up to three meters thick, forms the highest and older part of the complex. The upper part served as a defense platform , the lower part as a prison . Despite the difficult terrain, the keep was precisely aligned with the cardinal points.

The Weißenburg as namesake

In the 1980s, a settlement was built in the Tiefgrabenrotte . This district was called Weißenburg, although it is about one kilometer away from the actual village house agglomeration in the Weißenburg area. On January 1, 2017, the unit of the Frankenfels volunteer fire brigade, initially under the Weißenburg branch and later under the Weißenburg fire station, became the Weißenburg volunteer fire brigade, which was founded on May 7, 2017.

literature

• Gerhard Stenzel : From castle to castle in Austria. With aerial photography by Lothar Beckel. 2nd improved and enlarged edition. Verlag Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-218-00278-8 , p. 237.

Web links

Commons : Weißenburg, Frankenfels  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

proof

• Franz Xaver Schweickhardt : Representation of the Archduchy of Austria under the Ens, ... 7th volume: District of Upper Vienna Woods . Vienna 1837, chapter Dominion Kirchberg: Weissenburg. Pp. 21–26 ( text online , archive.org).
• Bernhard Gamsjäger : Frankenfelser house book. Frankenfels 1987.
• Martina and Georg Steiger: Weißenburg an der Pielach (folder). Frankenfels 1995.
• Bernhard Gamsjäger, Ernst Langthaler : Das Frankenfelser Buch , Frankenfels 1997.
• Heinz Palt: Home register of the market town of Kirchberg an der Pielach. Kirchberg an der Pielach 1976.
• Weissenburg . Website of the market town of Frankenfels
• Entry via Weissenberg / Pielach (Weissenburg) to Burgen-Austria
• Weissenburg Castle ruins . on wehrbauten.at