Location: Gmunden, Upper Austria Map
Constructed: 909
Schloss Ort is a medieval citadel that was constructed on a small island in the Traunsee lake in Upper Austria region of Austria. It is situated within boundaries of Gmunden community about 19 km from Vocklabruck. Small Toscana Park on the Western shores of the lake served as a splendid backdrop for this beautiful and unusual castle.
Schloss Ort – meaning the lake castle – was first mentioned in a
document in 909 and later in 1053. The castle was originally a moated
castle, but was rebuilt in its present form after the fire in 1626. The
Seeschloss is an irregular complex around a triangular courtyard with
two-sided, double-storey arcades and a late Gothic external staircase.
The first rulers of the “Veste Ort” were the lords of Ort, Styrian
ministerials. The first of these was Hartnid/Hartneid von Ort, a
great-grandson of the Bavarian Count Palatine Aribo II. The Orter ruled
from the 10th century until 1244, when the last of the knights was
imprisoned. The Seeschloss (the Landschloss was only built in 1634)
changed liege lords again and again in the following time, until it was
handed over to the Habsburg Emperor Friedrich III in 1483. fell, who
issued it as a (very popular) fiefdom. At the end of the 16th century
the castle was bought by the town of Gmunden, which had become very rich
through the salt trade. However, it had to be sold back to the Habsburg
Emperor Rudolf II in 1603 because of the high maintenance costs.
17th century
In 1620, Upper Austria (the then "Land ob der Enns") was
pledged to Bavaria. The Bavarian duke appointed Adam Graf von
Herberstorff as governor of Upper Austria in Linz. Count Herberstorff,
who shortly before had married the widow of Field Marshal Veit zu
Pappenheim, Maria Salome Freiin von Preysing-Headsburg, received the
former lake castle of the Lords of Scherffenberg. He also got the rule
of Tollet in the Hausruck district, which had been taken away from the
Protestant Jörger von Tollet family, and made it his residence and
government headquarters. The new owner of the castle was a very cruel
ruler who collected very high taxes and tithes. When the farmers tried
to rebel against him for the first time, he invited all the leaders for
"peaceful talks" on May 15, 1625 to the Haushammerfeld near Frankenburg.
After all the peasants had arrived, Count Herberstorff had 36 suspected
ringleaders surrounded by his soldiers and a one-on-one dice throw for
their lives. This historic event went down in Austrian history as the
Frankenburg Dice Games.
Count Herberstorff had hoped to frighten
the peasants with these dice games, but they were not intimidated and in
1626 the Upper Austrian peasant wars broke out. A total of 5,000 farmers
were able to entrench themselves on the Gmundener Hochkogel and win the
first battle against a Bavarian-Austrian army. Highly emboldened by
their victory, they attacked and burned various noble houses in Gmunden.
The farms and stables on the site of today's country palace were also
burned down. The following day the castle was attacked, looted and
mostly burned down. Only sudden rains prevented the fire from spreading
further. A month later, on November 15, 1626, the farmers near Pinsdorf
were crushed.
After the death of Count Herberstorff on September
11, 1629, the castle passed into the possession of his wife Maria
Salome, who sold it in 1634 to her son-in-law Johann Warmund - from 1645
Imperial Count of Preysing (* 1573, † 1648). In 1634 the lake palace was
rebuilt in its present form. In 1637 the village was raised to a county.
18th and 19th centuries
After 1690 the castle once again belonged
to the sovereigns of the House of Habsburg. They appointed a caretaker
who managed both castles and the Ort area, but who reported directly to
the Salzamtmann in Gmunden. Between the 15th century and 1848, the high
jurisdiction for the area of today's district of Gmunden (except for
the land within the Gmundner city walls) was also located within the
castle walls. Today three of the original four prison cells and the
hunger tower can still be visited.
In 1867, Leopold II of Tuscany bought the lake palace and passed it
on to his son, Archduke Johann Salvator of Austria-Tuscany. Within the
next thirty years the entire Ort area was bought by the Grand Dukes of
Tuscany, who established their seat of exile here. Archduke Johann
turned his back on the nobility a short time later and resigned all his
aristocratic titles. From then on he called himself Johann Orth after
the castles and married his long-term partner, the actress Milli Stubel.
In March 1890 he traveled to La Plata in his three-master St. Margaret.
The next destination, which he headed for together with his wife in July
1890, was Valparaiso after circumnavigating Cape Horn. However, his ship
never reached the port of destination and Johann Orth was reported
missing. In 1911 he was declared dead and the castles reverted to the
Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph.
20th Century and Present
In
1915 the k.k. Forstarar owed the castle. After the First World War in
1918, the castles became the property of the Federal Forests. In 1988
the Seeschloss was put up for sale and in 1995 it was acquired by the
municipality of Gmunden for 60 million schillings. It was then renovated
for 70 million schillings. A forestry training center of the Federal
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management
(FAST Ort) is currently housed in Landschloss Ort.
Between 1996
and 2004, the castle was the scene of the successful TV series
Schlosshotel Orth (144 episodes of 45 minutes each), which caused some
confusion among tourists, as the castle walls do not house a hotel but
only a restaurant with a wine bar.
A special feature of the
castle is the clockwork from 1634, which still has to be wound up by
hand every day.
Today the castle houses the Orther Stub'n
restaurant and the Orther Stub'n souvenir shop. In addition, events
(concerts, readings) and up to 362 weddings a year often take place
here.
The silted-up area of Orter Bucht in the west of the
Seeschloss is a nature reserve.
History
The Landschloss Ort is a square group of buildings that
was created in the first half of the 17th century from the outwork of
the Seeschloss. This had been burned down together with the Meierhof
during the Peasant Wars and then rebuilt as a palace in 1626-1629. Under
Archduke Johann Salvator, the interior of the palace was extensively
remodeled. A military hospital was housed here during the First World
War. From 1919 to 2018 it was used as a state forestry school and as a
seminar and congress center.
Construction
The square courtyard
is marked by four towers crowned with onion domes. On the outside there
are wrought iron window baskets from the first half of the 17th century.
The coats of arms of the former castle owners are displayed in the inner
courtyard; there is also a rococo fountain with the year 1777. The
ballroom has a painted wooden coffered ceiling from 1604-1612. On the
wall you can see large paintings from the 1st International Hunting
Exhibition (Vienna, 1910). The stucco frames of the doors and the
chimneys also date from the time when the country palace was built.
The castle was used as a forestry training center until September
2018, which organizationally belongs to the Federal Research and
Training Center for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape.
Sights in Seeschloss Ort
Romantic inner courtyard in the late Gothic
style
Palas (interiors)
Coat of Arms Hall (interior)
Church
(built 1634) dedicated to James the Elder
starvation tower
dungeon
cells and museum