Ratzenegg Castle

Ratzenegg Castle around 1680, depiction by Johann Weichard von Valvasor

Portal of Ratzenegg Castle

Ratzenegg Castle is a castle on a small hill in the district of the same name Ratzenegg in the market town of Moosburg in the state of Carinthia in Austria .

history

In 1333 Konrad von Auffenstein enfeoffed his feudal husband Friedrich von Hallegg with Ratzenegg Castle. When the Auffensteiners died out, the feudal right fell to the sovereign, who confirmed the fief to the Halleggians. Under Adam von Hallegg, the castle was converted into the present-day palace in the Renaissance style and provided with garden terraces. When the Halleggers finally had to leave the country during the Counter Reformation because they had become Protestant , they sold Ratzenegg Castle to their relative, Baron Georg Siegmund von Egg zu Hungersbach. Via this, the castle was bought in 1656 by Baron Neidhart von Staudach and finally in 1677 by his daughter Maria Isabella to Josef Wilhelm Graf von Kronegg . But already in 1708 the castle changed hands again when it was bought by Count Franz Adam Galler , who ceded it to Count Johann Peter von Goëss that same year . It was in his family until 1973. Since then there have been frequent changes of ownership. The interior of the castle was restored in 1996/1997. Ratzenegg Castle is still privately owned today.

architecture

The castle is accessed from the west. It is protected in the south and east by steep slopes and in the north by a massive three-storey building block. A connecting wall leads from this to the east wing of the facility. The wall is broken through by a portal, through which one reaches the inner courtyard. This has remains of wall paintings from the Renaissance.