Velden Castle (Carinthia)

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Southwest view
In Advent lighting

The Schloss Velden is located on the western shore of Lake Wörth on the territory of the municipality Velden in Carinthia .

history

Bartholomäus Khevenhüller (1539–1613), Baron von Aichelberg, who belonged to the influential Carinthian noble family of Khevenhüller , was the builder of the original palace . Khevenhüller was both an entrepreneur and a functionary of the Carinthian estates and as such made it up to the Burgrave of Klagenfurt (1581). Since he was constantly commuting between Landskron Castle , the ancestral home of the Khevenhüller family, and Klagenfurt, in 1585 about halfway through the farming village of Velden on the west bank of the Wörthersee, he bought a property that initially only had a mill. He had a house built there directly on the lake and gradually expanded it into a representative property with considerable financial outlay (23,000 guilders). The actual mansion of the palace complex, which was finally completed according to the inscription on the garden portal in 1603, was a three-and-a-half-story, rectangular building with four polygonal corner towers.

After Barthlma's death, the castle initially remained in the family until the Protestant nobility, which also included the Khevenhüller family, had to leave Carinthia in 1629. In 1639 the President of the Court Chamber, which was entrusted with the administration of the confiscated property, Siegmund Ludwig von Dietrichstein , took possession of Velden Castle. The property remained in the possession of the Dietrichsteiner until 1861 , but its representative use for family celebrations is only documented until 1716. In 1762 a fire destroyed large parts of the castle, which was then only poorly restored, with the corner towers partially having to be removed. After that it was only used as a post office and an inn.

Hotel since the end of the 19th century

In the course of the emergence of Wörthersee tourism at the end of the 19th century, the Viennese porcelain manufacturer Ernst Wahliss , who had previously had the Park Hotel and an entire villa complex built on the Pörtschach peninsula, acquired the run-down property in Velden in 1890. He had the building rebuilt by the architect Wilhelm Hess in the neo-renaissance style, with the facade being reconstructed according to old views. The interior rooms were prepared for use as an exclusive hotel complex. Further modifications and extensions followed in the 1920s and 1930s under the direction of Franz Baumgartner ; the last time the exterior was restored in 1993.

From 1952 the castle hotel served as a location for films and television productions; the best known of these is the television series Ein Schloß am Wörthersee (1990–92); a memorial bust in the café diagonally opposite the castle reminded of their main actor Roy Black . Gunter Sachs acquired Velden Castle in 1990 and had it extensively renovated. In 2003 he sold it to a real estate group; he reopened the castle hotel at Whitsun 2007 with the US hotel group West Paces under the “Capella” brand.

Falkensteiner Castle Hotel Velden

In 2011 it was sold by Hypo Alpe Adria to Amisola Immobilien AG, owned by Karl Wlaschek . The hotel has been operated by the Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group since 2012 . In 2013 the hotel was supplemented by a modern complex with a 3,600 m² spa facility. The hotel belongs to the hotel group The Leading Hotels of the World . In 2009 the history of the hotel was published by The Most Famous Hotels in the World under the title Hotel Schloss Velden .

Building description

The large castle building with a rectangular floor plan has four side corner towers with hooded roofs. The eastern front facing the lake is three-story, the opposite front facing the park is two-story. The rustic portal north of the building is marked with the year 1603 and is flanked by banded pilasters . Above that, between two obelisks, there is an essay with the coats of arms of Bartholomäus Khevenhüller and his three wives. A connecting passage leads from the north portal to one of the corner towers. Another remnant from the time of construction are the bifor windows above the round-arched west portal.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schlosshotel Velden sold to Wlaschek in the press on July 20, 2011, accessed on July 29, 2011
  2. ^ Schlosshotel Velden reopens its doors in the Wiener Zeitung on April 13, 2012, accessed on April 24, 2012
  3. ↑ woerthersee.com: Falkensteiner Schlosshotel Velden

Coordinates: 46 ° 36 ′ 42.2 "  N , 14 ° 2 ′ 35.6"  E