Achleiten Castle (Kematen an der Krems)
The Schloss Achleiten located in the district Achleiten the municipality of Kematen an der Krems in Upper Austria in the district Linz-Land (Achleiten 1).
history
The area in which Achleiten Castle is located originally belonged to the Tegernsee dominion. Then the Berchtesgaden provost followed as feudal lord and around 1200 the area became a fiefdom of the Kremsmünster monastery . A Chunrat and a Sieghart are mentioned as the first loan takers. The castle was of strategic importance: together with the now defunct Rohr Veste, Achleiten Castle enabled the Kremstal to be completely closed if necessary. The castle was protected by a double moat with accompanying drawbridges. These are now replaced by stone bridges.
With Bernhard von Achleiten (Achleuthner), Achleiten was mentioned for the first time in 1189. At the consecration of the Aegidius Church at the Wels Traun Bridge, Bernhard's sons Walchun, Hartwig and Otto are named as donors. The Achleitner were "single-shielded knights" who were enfeoffed with the castle by the Kremsmünster Abbey. A Berthold von Achleuten became abbot of Kremsmünster Abbey in 1219. Achleuteners are mentioned as witnesses in various documents (1254 Otto and Heinrich; 1287 Otto, who joins the Kremsmünster Monastery; 1289–1318 Heinrich, whose sons Heinrich, Bernhard and Berthold are mentioned in 1318). A Wolfgang von Achleuten, who also owned Almegg Castle , was married to Elisabeth von Geymann. In 1303 the castle passed from Kremsmünster Abbey to the sovereign prince, with Achleiten becoming a tenet of the Wallseer . The last of the Achleitner was a Hans von Achleuten († 1431), married to Katharina Feuchtner. Before that (1375), the von Achleuten men had already sold their seat to Conrad von Meillenstorff. This in turn sold the property to Wilhelm der Stadler von Stadlkirchen in 1375 . In 1377, Hans der Lerbühler acquired the castle and gave it to his daughter Wendelmut as a marriage property, who gave the property to her husband Wolfhart von Sinzendorf in the same year.
Achleiten stayed with the Sinzendorff family until 1602. In that year, Appolonia von Sinzendorff married Erhard von Grienthal and received the castle, which had been converted into a castle, as a bridal equipment. This was followed by Gottfried Freiherr von Grienthal. His wife was the daughter of Matthias Castner von Siegmundslust . Baron von Grienthal sold Achleiten and Hehenberg Castle near Bad Hall in 1674 to his father-in-law. In 1643 the castle chapel, which had been damaged by fire, was demolished. In the place of the former Leonhard Chapel, a Maria sacrificial chapel was built, in which there is an altarpiece by Kremser-Schmidt . In 1692, Count Ernst von Thun bought the Achleiten estate, which he merged with Hehenberg to form a Fideikommiss. This was only dissolved in 1815 and the Achleiten estate was sold individually. In 1816, Franz Iglseder acquired the castle, but sold it to Franz Planck von Planckburg von Schloss Weyer in the same year . In 1880 Achleiten came to Ludwig Ritter von Boschan. Thereafter, the Teufenstein family became owners of Achleiten Castle. The last of the Teufensteiners were the widow Edina after Baron Georg Teufenstein and his daughter Tatiana. In 1982 the Max-Theurer family acquired the palace and park from them and restored the complex. Today Schloss Achleiten is owned by the Olympic dressage champion (Moscow 1980) Elisabeth Max-Theurer ; she uses the castle as her main residence and also houses the stud for her horse breeding there.
Achleiten Castle today
Achleiten Castle is a three-story building that looks down towards the Krems. It lies on a wooded foothill of an Ice Age glacial moraine on the left bank of the Krems . Significant parts of the original castle are still preserved (double trench girdle, round tower next to the gate to secure the outer bailey). The tower has a key ring on the top floor. The tower roof is an onion helmet with a lantern and an attached, smaller onion that holds a weather vane. The trenches are no longer spanned with drawbridges, but with brick bridges. Roller holes above the gates still bear witness to the earlier function. The coats of arms of the city of Steyr-Garsten and of Archbishop Ernst von Thun are placed above the former drawbridge leading to the main building. In the vestibule there is still a coat of arms from the Veste Rohr with the year 1577.
The castle got its present appearance in the 18th century. The irregular floor plan suggests that the walls rest on those of the old castle. The massive residential wing has a side extension on the right, the roof of which is integrated into that of the main building. It can be assumed that there was a tower here that had been removed down to the lower edge of the roof. There is a vaulted hall with stone pillars on each floor. The stone castle fountain (made by Johann Baptist Spatz in 1692) and the garden pavilion with mirror vaults and stucco (decorated with Ernst von Thun's coat of arms) date from the 17th century. A stone figure in the fountain also bears the coat of arms of Ernst von Thun, Archbishop of Salzburg, and the year 1692. The castle courtyard has an arcade with nine columns.
Until a few years ago, the famous Achleitner Castle cheese was produced in the castle's own cheese dairy. This strong smelling cheese is now made in Scharnstein . Until recently, the farmyard also belonged to the castle, the Achleiten estate with private hunt, which is now owned by Ing. Hubert and Rosa Winkler. The legend of the "Devil of Achleiten" also surrounds the castle
gallery
Achleiten Castle: tower
Entrance portal with slots for drawbridge
View of Achleiten Castle from the Krems
Neck ditch of Achleiten Castle
Entrance gate to the park
literature
- Oskar Hille: Castles and palaces in Upper Austria then and now. Verlag Ferdinand Berger & Sons, Horn 1975, ISBN 3-85028-023-3 .
- Norbert Grabherr : Castles and palaces in Upper Austria. A guide for castle hikers and friends of home. 3rd edition . Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag, Linz 1976, ISBN 3-85214-157-5 .
Web links
- Entry on Achleiten Castle in the Austria Forum
- Entry via Achleiten (Upper Austria) to Burgen-Austria
- Achleiten Castle at bergfex.at
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 48 ° 4 ′ 29.7 " N , 14 ° 10 ′ 50.2" E