Greißenegg Castle

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The front of the Greißenegg Castle

Greißenegg Castle , also written Greisenegg or Greiseneck and called Unter-Voitsberg Castle , is a castle in the municipality of Voitsberg in Styria . Its history goes back to the 12th or early 13th century. The castle is now privately owned and houses a wine tavern .

Location

The castle stands in the southern part of the city of Voitsberg on the right bank of the Kainach on an almost free-standing, rocky hill, a spur of the Kowaldrück ridge. It has the address Greißenegger Straße 5 and is in the north of the cadastral community of Kowald .

history

View of Greißenegg Castle around 1680
View of Greißengg Castle around 1830

Probably already in the 12th century, and thus probably also before the construction of Obervoitsberg Castle , or in the first half of the 13th century on the site of today's castle, the sovereign built a small house with a defense tower, which together with Obervoitsberg Castle the Voitsberg settlement protected. The sovereigns had the castle administered by their servants. The first two centuries of the castle's history are only sparsely documented. It is unclear whether the "castrum inferiums Witsperch" mentioned in 1265 is from Greißenegg, or whether it was used to describe a castle at the foot of the castle hill of Obervoitsberg, which was later abandoned. The first documentary mention that can be safely assigned to Greißenegg Castle comes from 1336 as "nyder haws Veytsperch". Further mentions come from the years 1443 as "veste Voitsperch enhalb der Kainach", 1489 Gschlos on the Greysenegk and closed Greisseneckh under Voytsperg and 1494 as "Schloss Voitsberg".

In 1254 Gertrud von Babenberg got the castle as a personal asset before it went back to the sovereign between 1263 and 1265. The sovereign had the castle looked after by a keeper, a sovereign servant. From around 1275 the people of Hanau, who allegedly immigrated from Germany and who also owned Hauenstein Castle, sat on Greißenegg. The castle was of little importance to the Hanau residents, which is why they let their knightly servants administer it, but their names have not been passed down. In 1420, Grüna, the daughter of the last Haunauer, brought the castle into her marriage with Ernst Hans Laun, who carried out major extensions to the complex known as the Lower Voitsberg Fortress. Among other things, a defensive wall and a moat were built and a Lady Chapel was built at the entrance to the castle. Hans Laun's niece Margaretha married Andreas Greißenegger after his death in 1458 or 1459 , which means that Greißenegger owned the castle along with other possessions. Greißenegger wanted to set up his own rule here and began to further expand the castle. He received in 1463 from Emperor Friedrich III. awarded a truce . After the execution of Greißenegger because of his participation in the Baumkircher feud against the emperor on April 23, 1471, Unter-Voitsberg Castle was confiscated by the emperor and loaned by him to Hans Ramung in 1472. Ramung was followed by Andreas von Teufenbach in 1478 and Konrad von Holleneck in 1479. During the war in Hungary between 1480 and 1490, the castle was occupied in 1486 by the troops of the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus and held until 1490. In 1489 the castle was first mentioned as "Gschlos auf dem Greysenegk" and "gschloss Greisseneckh vnder Voitsberg".

After the withdrawal of the Hungarian troops in 1490, the castles Unter- and Obervoitsberg went to Hans Gewmann, who ceded Unter-Voitsberg to Emperor Maximilian I in 1494 . Maximilian I left the property to Bartlmä von Pernegg / Perneck in 1496 as a reward for his services and to repay his monetary claims to the emperor. After Bartlma's death in 1509, Perneck's wife Katharina and his daughter Ursula pledged Greißengg to Sebastian Eigl for life. Wilhelm von Herberstein and his wife Regina von Plumeck bought the castle in 1532/33. In 1574 there was an inheritance dispute between Wilhelm's successor Dietrich von Herberstein and his cousin Georg von Herberstein, which was resolved in favor of Georg. Archduke Karl II gave Dietrich von Herberstein the order in 1578 to hand over the Greißenegg Castle and all its inventory to a sovereign commission, which in turn was to hand it over to Georg von Herberstein and to pay a sum of money to Georg and the sovereign chamber. When the commission arrived, Dietrich had them wait an hour in front of the castle gate and then also disrupted the inventory. According to the handover report of the commission, the castle was dilapidated and completely emptied, for example the window frames were torn out and the floors were rotten. It was finally handed over to Georg on October 14, 1578, after which he began to restore the castle. Georg's widow Barbara and his sons Bernhard and Georg came into the possession of Greißenegg in 1582. The Herberstein handed over the property in 1624 to Hans Siegmund Graf von Wagensperg, who finally bought it in 1633 from Emperor Ferdinand II .

With one exception between 1804 and 1818 in which the castle was owned by Karl August Fürst Isenburg, Greißenegg remained in the possession of the Wagen von Wagensperg family until the late 19th century and was part of a family entourage from 1774 . On a map from 1680 you can still to keep recognize the defensive walls and towers and the old chapel. On the upper floor of the west wing, directly above the access hall, a new castle chapel was set up in 1693, which in 1755 had a measuring license for several days a year, which in turn was greatly expanded in 1790. At that time, the Greißenegg lordship included subjects in the Kainach and Gradental valleys , three Meierhöfe near Rosental , tithe and mining rights for vineyards near Ligist and Mooskirchen, as well as the March fodder sale of Edelschrott and Voitsberg . In the course of the 18th century the rule was combined with the rule of Obervoitsberg. In 1813 coal mining began on the castle grounds. This was the beginning of coal mining in the Köflach-Voitsberger basin and is considered to be one of the oldest coal mines in Styria. Around 1841 the Greißenegg manor had the function of a district authority. The district of Greißenegg extended from Kleinkainach in what is now the municipality of Bärnbach to Stallhofen . Most of the civil servants in the district lived in Greißengg Castle together with the members of the Wagensperg family. After the dissolution of the basic subservience in 1848, the Greißengg rule went downhill economically, and in 1876 the bankruptcy of the assets of Count Adolf von Wagensperg was declared. August Zang acquired the property at a public auction in 1877 . Zang had the building redesigned and furnished in a historical style by an Italian master builder, probably A. de Gjoja . As part of the renovation, a farmyard with a riding school for Zang's wife Ludovica was built at the foot of the castle hill. After Zang's death in 1888, the estate went to his wife Ludovica, who sold it to Count Ludwig Witold von Ostrovsky in 1903. This caused the castle chapel to receive a new measurement license , which ensured that masses could be held daily and in exceptional cases also on Sundays. Ostrovsky's widow sold the castle to the Viennese lawyer Walter Rittler in 1918 because of her high debts.

From 1953, under Rittler's heirs, the castle slowly began to decline. From the 1970s onwards, only the painter Franz Dampfhofer lived in an apartment in the castle, which he also used as a studio. In 1979, Dr. Walter Rittler and his sister Mary Louise Rittler-Gröger used the castle park and castle pond for the Voitsberg population as a local recreation area. The district forester Emil Hilbl carried out a redesign of the park, to which the meanwhile dilapidated farm yard and riding school fell victim to make way for a festival meadow. The park and the pond were purchased by the municipality of Voitsberg in 1980. At a special auction of the Dorotheum , the last remnants of the interior were auctioned off in autumn 1984. Some pieces of furniture were later bought by the municipality of Voitsberg and can be seen today in a Zangzimmer in the Voitsberg town hall that was set up in 2003 . The timber merchant Franz Steirer acquired the castle in the winter of 1984/85 and began to carry out extensive repairs. After his death in 1987, his wife Stefanie and daughter Sylvia continued the work.

From May to October 1988, Greißenegg Castle hosted two special exhibitions with almost 28,000 visitors as part of the State Exhibition on Glass and Coal . At around the same time, the castle building was damaged during construction work on the nearby underground route (bypass road from Voitsberg), which culminated in years of legal dispute between the construction company, client and castle owners. Today there is a wine tavern in the castle .

description

The castle is a three-storey four-wing complex around a small arcade courtyard in the middle of a large park. Most of the building's core dates back to the 17th century with a historicist facade that resembles an Italian country house. The former neck ditch in the west of the facility has been largely refilled and a modern bridge leads over it to the mighty gate. The eastern wing of the south wing dates from the 15th century and is considered to be the oldest part of the complex. In the north, south and west of this wing there are slightly protruding, square towers. On the wall facing the courtyard there is a coalition coat of arms of Count Adolf von Wagensperg and his wife, born in Saurau, from 1758. In the north arcade there is a late Gothic decorative painting that was discovered during renovation work.

Only a small part of the interior is from the time of the redesign by August Zang in 1877. In the former dining room there is a ceiling with stuccoed paper and an allegorical oil painting by Pierre Eugene Lacoste in 1867. The palace chapel dates from 1693 and was located on the second floor of the west wing. The chapel's license to measure expired in 1916.

The castle is surrounded by an extensive park with a fountain and a pond. Only a part of the defensive walls is preserved. A bridge leads over the former neck ditch to a baroque gateway. The bastion in front of the castle in the east was built in the 17th century. The smaller, pentagonal bastion in the north-west of the complex also dates from the same period.

literature

  • Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 227-235 .
  • Federal Monuments Office (ed.): Dehio Steiermark (excluding Graz) . 2nd Edition. Berger, Horn / Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-85028-439-5 , p. 586 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Entry about Greißenegg Castle in Burgen-Austria
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape  1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 227-235 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Robert Baravalle: Castles and palaces of Styria . Leykam Buchverlagsgesellschaft mbH, Graz 1961, ISBN 3-7011-7323-0 , p. 570 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h Walter Brunner (Ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 2 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 77 .
  5. ↑ Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.): Dehio Steiermark (excluding Graz) . 2nd Edition. Berger, Horn / Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-85028-439-5 , p. 586 .
  6. ↑ a b Robert Baravalle: Castles and palaces of Styria . Leykam Buchverlagsgesellschaft mbH, Graz 1961, ISBN 3-7011-7323-0 , p. 571 .

Web links

Commons : Schloss Greißenegg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Entry via Schloss Greißenegg to Burgen-Austria

Coordinates: 47 ° 2 ′ 55.6 ″  N , 15 ° 8 ′ 37.2 ″  E