Böckstein Castle, Austria

 

Böckstein Castle (also called Czernin Hunting Lodge) is located in the municipality of Badgastein (Siegmundsweg 2) in the St. Johann im Pongau district in the state of Salzburg. The castle in Böckstein was built between 1882 and 1884 as a hunting lodge for Count Rudolf von Czernin and is now used as the summer and vacation home of its owners. The first palace building fell victim to a fire on August 15, 1902 and was rebuilt between 1902 and 1903 according to plans by Josef Wessicken, a student of the Ringstrasse architect Friedrich von Schmidt, and the master builder Angelo Comini.

The small castle consists of a combination of "old German" and English elements and is characterized by a mixture of castle and country house character with national romantic features.

The castle is privately owned by the Czernin-Kinsky family and cannot be visited.

 

Destinations

The old mining site is best known for the mining museum and the Radhausberg mine at 1900 m with the Hieronymus tunnel, which documents the history of gold mining. The Böcksteiner Montanforschungszentrum Radhausberg (MFZR) is also located here.

The Roman road over the Tauern (Gasteiner Tauern, both around 2,450 meters above sea level) led through this valley in ancient times. An interdisciplinary research project proved the remains of Roman roads on the Korntauern / Hohen Tauern and Mallnitzer Tauern / Niederen Tauern as well as in the Bockharttal.

The Böckstein church Maria vom Gute Rat was built between 1764 and 1766 by the master builder Christian Glaner from Werfen according to plans by the lordly building manager Wolfgang Hagenauer. The client was Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach. The ceiling painting of the church, consecrated in 1767, shows the original history of the miraculous image of Mary from Genazzano's good advice and comes from Johann Weiß from Augsburg. In addition, there are mainly motifs from mining. The Böckstein church was also used by Jakob Alt (1789–1872) as a motif for a lithograph in 1830 and was depicted by the artist from the Biedermeier period without the hunting lodge.

The Catholic rectory is located south of the church. Erected in 1742 as a mountain administrator's house. It is considered to be the oldest still existing building in the Böckstein district.

On the church hill stands Count Rudolf von Czernin's hunting lodge, which was completed in 1880 and burned down in 1902, but was rebuilt by master builder Angelo Comini with minor changes based on plans by Josef Wessicken.