Wartberg Castle (St. Oswald near Freistadt)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wartberg Castle after an engraving by Georg Matthäus Vischer from 1674 from the Topographia Austriae superioris modernae

The Wartberg castle was a castle in Wartberg , in the municipality of St. Oswald near Freistadt in the district of Freistadt in the country Upper Austria .

history

Wartberg Castle on a photo from 1920

The castle was the ancestral seat of the noble family of the same name, which has been documented since 1170. The first Wartpers are Ortwin and Wezil. A knight von Wartperch gave Wernhard and Weikhard von Pollheim a farm in Glogendorf (Klendorf) near Gallneukirchen. Another of this family is Friedrich der Wartberger in 1374, followed by a Hanns (1415–1425) and an Engelhart (1466–1473). In 1520 Hanns Rüdiger Artstetter acquired Wartberg and converted the former castle into a palace. He was succeeded as owner by Christoph Artstetter zum Zellhof . The castle was a Liechtenstein fiefdom with a farm for its own business. In 1602, the Artstetter brothers Hanns Albrecht and Kaspar Artstetter zum Wartberg on Helfenberg with the widow Anastasia for themselves and their son Hanns Christoph sold the "Gschloß Wartperg" to Hanns Wilhelm von Zelking zu Weinberg.

After the sale, Wartberg became part of the Weinberg estate . The castle was abandoned and only served as a yard or hospital . During the Counter-Reformation, the Zelkingern had to sell the residence to the Catholic Thürheimers in 1629/1634 because of their Protestantism . From 1626, from the Upper Austrian Peasants 'War during the Thirty Years' War , it is said that “the peasants made the powder here”. In 1752 the Thürheim guardians bequeathed the Schlossmeierhof to Franz Maximilian Ruezinger.

Buildings

Remnants of the wall of the Meierhof

As can be seen in the engraving by Georg Matthäus Vischer from 1674, there was a palisade-reinforced pond in front of the castle and a ditch on the entrance side, over which a wooden bridge led to an entrance portal . The main gate was marked with the year 1529. At the front, the castle was provided with two onion-like round towers . Another round tower can be seen in the background, with the castle courtyard sloping backwards. The planned fourth round tower was not implemented. The rear part of the castle appears to have been a utility wing. A possible Meierhof is also partially surrounded by a watercourse, with the entire facility being accessible again via a bridge. When the castle was still standing, there were scratch-plaster friezes on the eastern side of the courtyard . A hall with a beamed ceiling and stucco framing had collapsed in the 1960s.

After the Second World War , the once mighty moated castle fell into ruin . In 1963 it was demolished because of the new building on Lasberger Bezirksstrasse. Today only one wall of the former Meierhof remains. The Holzhaider company is now based on the castle grounds.

literature

  • 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 .
  • Georg Grüll : Castles and palaces in Upper Austria, Volume 1: Mühlviertel . Birken-Verlag, Vienna 1962.
  • Oskar Hille: Castles and palaces in Upper Austria then and now . Verlag Ferdinand Berger & Sons, Horn 1975, ISBN 3-85028-023-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Benedikt Pillwein: History, geography and statistics of the Archduchy of Austria ob der Enns and the Duchy of Salzburg: With a register, which is also the topographical and genealogical lexicon and the district map. Geographical-historical-statistical detail of the Mühlkreis according to district commissariats. Volume 2. Quandt, 1827, section District Commissariat Weinberg, Parish St. Oswald, Wartberg , p. 437 f ( Google eBook, full view ).

Coordinates: 48 ° 29 ′ 47.5 "  N , 14 ° 34 ′ 39.8"  E