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.
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.