Merkenstein ruins
| Merkenstein ruins | ||
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 Vischer engraving by Merkenstein, 1670 |
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| Creation time : | before 1166 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Place: | Bad Vöslau | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 58 '56.2 " N , 16 ° 8' 1.2" E | |
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The castle Merkenstein is the ruin of Lower Austria's hilltop castle in Bad Vöslau in the cadastral Gainfarn. Today the castle is only preserved as a ruin. According to uncertain sources, it was mentioned before 1141. The first reliable mention comes from the Codex Falkensteinensis around 1170.
history
The Merkensteiners sat at the castle until 1322, when they had to pass it on. The next important castle owners were the Wallseer, who held Merkenstein Castle for a good 100 years until they had to pass the castle on to Stephan von Hohenberg for financial and family reasons in 1440. The Hohenbergers ruled Merkenstein until 1484. The castle was once the scene of an imperial siege.
In 1482, the then lord of the castle, Hans III. von Hohenberg made his castles Merkenstein, Hohenberg and Kreisbach available to the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus in his war against Emperor Friedrich III. The Kaiser then sent an army against Merkenstein, but the siege failed after a total of four weeks. In 1484 Hans III. reconciled with Friedrich and then sold Merkenstein Castle to him. The castle was now sovereign and received by imperial ambassadors.
In 1486, however, King Matthias Corvinus returned and conquered Merkenstein. After his death the castle fell back to the empire . From 1603 to 1672 it was owned by the Heißperger family, then by the Dietrichsteiner . In 1683 the castle was captured and destroyed by Ottoman troops and has been falling into disrepair ever since. The Dietrichsteiner estate management was relocated to the old Gainfarn Castle .
In addition to Gainfarn and Großau, the Merkenstein rule included the Pottenstein rule and the offices of Furth , Muggendorf and St. Veit .
In addition to the much younger Merkenstein Castle, about 40% of the area of the then Großau community belonged to Gut Merkenstein . Until the end of the Second World War , the castle next to the estate was owned by the German line of the Krupp family . That is why it fell into the USIA administration of the Soviets as German property after the war . After the state treaty , the castle came into the ownership of the republic and thus that of the federal forests .
The German composer Ludwig van Beethoven dedicated two songs to the Merkenstein ruins.
In October 2008, the ruin was the location for the shooting of the television crime series Four Women and a Death .
photos
View of the ruins from the Großau - Schwarzensee road
Ruin from the access road
An Arch in the Ruin (2012)
literature
- Johann Redl, Merkenstein. The history of the castle ruins, the castle & the Merkenstein rule. A compilation of the Bad Vöslau municipality, 2008
Individual evidence
- ^ Dehio-Handbuch Niederösterreich Süd der Donau , 2003, Berger Verlag, Horn / Vienna, ISBN 3-85028-364-X , p. 142
- ↑ Vienna Press Photo Agency
Web links
- Entry via Merkenstein - castle ruins on Burgen-Austria
- Merkenstein ruins on tiscover