Location: Burgenland Burg Gussing Location on a Map
Constructed: 1157
Güssing Castle is enthroned on a steep porphyry cone in the
Stremtal near Güssing in Burgenland. With its construction in 1157,
it is the oldest castle complex in Burgenland and a distinctive
landmark of the region. In addition, it gained historical importance
in 1459 when dissatisfied magnates gathered there and Emperor
Frederick III. elected king of Hungary, who thus became the opponent
of the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus.
In the shadow of the
castle, a suburbium developed, which lay around the castle rock with
a lens-shaped green and was called civitas in 1427 and civitas et
suburbium in 1459. Today's city of Güssing developed from it.
The castle was first mentioned in a document in 1157 when the
Hungarian King Géza II awarded the “Quizun” mountain and its
surroundings to Count Wolfer from Wildon in Styria. In the same year
he erected a wooden fortification on the volcanic cone next to a
Benedictine monastery, which is to be regarded as the predecessor of
today's castle.
King Bela III. had the fortifications and
monastery confiscated and converted into a stone castle in the 12th
century. In 1198 the castle is mentioned in a deed of donation, in
which it is described as novum castrum. During the 13th century the
castle was expanded several times by the owners Demetrius von Csak
and Moritz Pok. Along with the castles in Wieselburg and Sopron, as
well as Lockenhaus Castle and those in Eisenburg, it was part of the
castle belt along Hungary's western border. Güssing Castle was one
of the few Hungarian castles that could not be taken during the
Tartar invasion of 1241/42. In 1273 the troops of Ottokar of Bohemia
had to unsuccessfully end a siege of the castle.
In 1270, the
complex came from royal property and became the property of the
Güssinger Counts (Lords of Güns), who temporarily owned all the
castles in the area. Although the Heder noble clan strived for an
independent principality and was therefore in constant dispute with
the Hungarian royal family, some members made it to the highest
offices in the kingdom. For example, Count Heinrich (1254–1274),
ludex Curiae, Palatine and Banus, temporarily controlled the
fortunes of Hungary. In 1285, Güssinger Count Ivan (Johann I von
Heder), also known as Ivan the Red Knight, dared a campaign against
Duke Albrecht I of Austria and was able to inflict a sensitive
defeat on him in 1289 at Bernstein. However, the Styrian rhyming
chronicle of Ottokar from the Gaal reports on a subsequent victory
by Duke Albrecht over Count Ivan. The duke's steward, Berthold von
Emmerberg, was able to conquer Güssing and held it as a fief for
some time. In 1327 the Güssing counts were finally subdued and lost
their importance.
After several changes of ownership,
Nikolaus Ujlaky, a representative of the Habsburg party, seized the
castle. Under his chairmanship, the magnates, who were dissatisfied
with Matthias Corvinus, gathered at Güssing Castle in 1459 and
elected Friedrich III. to the king of Hungary. Nikolaus Ujlaky later
sided with Matthias Corvinus again.
Nikolaus' son Lorenz
behaved so defiantly towards King Vladislav II that the castle,
which was considered impregnable, was besieged and conquered in 1490
by the troops of the Roman-German King Maximilian I.
After
Lorenz died childless in 1522, the complex reverted to the Hungarian
crown. King Ludwig II then gave it to the Hungarian nobleman Franz
Batthyány and his nephew Christoph as a reward for defeating a
Turkish army at Jajce. Their family had the castle expanded into a
spacious fortress in the 16th and 17th centuries because of the
threatening danger from the east.
With the loss of its
strategic importance - weapons began to be delivered in 1775 - the
castle was left to decay in the 18th century, since the roof tax at
the time made it unaffordable for the owner to maintain it.
Well aware of the importance of the castle, including the monastery
and family crypt for the Batthyány family and the region of the
country, Prince Philipp Batthyány-Strattmann set up a foundation in
1870 for the preservation of Güssing Castle and the monastery.
Since the foundation had lost most of its capital in the years
of inflation after the First World War, a way had to be found to
ensure the preservation of the castle and monastery for future
generations.
For this reason, the Batthyány family offered
the state of Burgenland/the public sector co-administration of the
Prince Batthyány Foundation in the 1980s, and extensive renovation
and preservation measures were made possible and taken.
The
first conservation measures took place as early as 1957. Further
extensive restoration and reconstruction work followed between 1982
and 2000, so that Güssing Castle is now in the same condition as it
was 200 years ago.
The castle is still managed by the Weiland
Prince Philipp Batthyány-Strattmann Foundation. Its curator is the
respective head of the family – currently the 10th prince, Ladislaus
Edmund Batthyány-Strattmann, who manages the foundation together
with the administrator of the state of Burgenland.
Access to the outer bailey is via a fortified
gateway on the north side of the complex. Their courtyard is surrounded
by the remains of the former fortress.
A wide staircase leads to
the inner courtyard of the stronghold. The buildings surrounding the
inner courtyard mostly have three floors, of which the basement was
partially hewn directly out of the rock.
Between the living
quarters and the chapel wing from the 15th century rises the mighty
keep, some of which dates back to the Romanesque period.
20 rooms
in the stronghold are now home to a castle museum with around 5000
exhibits. You can see, among other things, the ancestral gallery and
family museum of the Batthyány family, old weapons, sculptures and
handicrafts, as well as Renaissance and Baroque paintings, including two
portraits by Lucas Cranach the Elder.
A very special attraction
is the ascent to the bell tower, which has been made accessible and from
which a panoramic view of the Pannonian lowlands is possible.
Today, theatrical performances, concerts and readings take place on the
grounds of the castle. Some rooms can also be rented for private events.
It has recently become possible to have a civil wedding in the castle
and a church wedding in the castle chapel.
The Batthyány family
meets every year at the end of June for a family day at their family
castle. In recent years, some Batthyány family members have also been
baptized in the castle chapel.
Since 1994, the Güssing Castle
Games have been held annually in the castle courtyard, which tie in with
the cultural tradition of the Batthyánys.
Site and overall layout
The complex is a Höhenburg arranged in
successive rings that climb the cone:
Lower approach and first
gate on the northeast slope
Outer works (Scheibelturm, Franzenstor,
cannon bastion, casemates)
Large outer courtyard / “Burgwiese” (over
6,000 m² of grass)
Rock-cut Adamstor tunnel into the inner bailey
Compact high castle (Hochburg) around a tight inner court
Western
widow’s wing and Ujlaky tower on the cliff edge
Natural basalt
and tuff were cut into cellars, gate tunnels, and lower rooms. Upper
walls mix local stone with large quantities of brick after the mid-16th
century, when the Batthyány family turned the place into an anti-Ottoman
fortress.
Approach, gates, and outer artillery works
The first
gate sits halfway up the northeast slope. It is a two-storey rectangular
gatehouse with a saddle roof, tied into a thick bastion wall with gun
loops that runs back into the rock. Directly north of it stands the
Scheibelturm (1544, repaired 1657): a two-storey half-round tower with a
conical roof. Its name comes from the disk-like plan. Light guns once
fired through its loops to cover the road.
Above that the path
steepens into the Franzenstor, a mid-17th-century bastion gate named for
Franz I Batthyány. The round-arched portal still carries the initials
“FDB,” an iron grille, and a double wooden door.
To the right of the
cannon bastion rises the Kanonenhalle, a large early-17th-century
casemate. It has a Renaissance portal and a vault carried on polygonal
piers. Heavy guns once stood here; the hall is not normally open to
visitors.
The last outer gate is the Adamstor. An 18 m tunnel,
largely hewn from the living rock, leads into the outer bailey. The core
is 15th-century, with two pointed-arch stone portals; a later brick
baroque portal closes the inner end.
These outer works show the shift
from medieval curtain-and-tower defense to Italianate bastion and
casemate design after 1524, when the Batthyány family spent large sums
(one campaign is recorded at 75,000 gulden) to resist Ottoman and
Hungarian rebel armies.
Outer bailey and widow’s wing
The big
grassy courtyard is framed on the south by the high castle and on the
west by the Witwentrakt. The widow’s range is about 50 m long. Its south
end is a massive three-storey tower built on the edge of the basalt
cliff; the lowest floor has gun loops and a flat roof that could take
artillery. The long northern arm is single-storey with an open wall-walk
now used as a terrace. The wing originated in the 14th-15th centuries
and was adapted in the 16th century as a residence for widowed Batthyány
ladies.
Further west stood the Ujlaky tower (named for Nikolaus
Ujlaky, mid-15th century lord). Parts of the connecting west ranges were
demolished in the 18th century for building stone. The oldest masonry
yet found on the hill, 12th-century blocks, came from a cellar under
this tower.
High castle (Hochburg)
The inner castle occupies
the flattened summit. Buildings are mostly three storeys; many
ground-floor rooms are cut straight into the volcanic rock. They group
around a tight inner court. Between the residential wing and the chapel
wing stands the Bergfried.
The keep is square, about 7 × 7 m at the
base. Its lower masonry is still Romanesque, from the first stone castle
of the late 12th century (the “Novum Castrum” of 1198). Most of the
visible tower was rebuilt in 1497 under Lorenz Ujlaky; an inscription
names him and the castellan Peter Porkoláb. The belfry storey is 17th
century and is capped by a distinctive Renaissance copper helmet. The
baroque castle bell of 1647 hangs here. The tower now functions as a
clock and bell tower and can be climbed for a view across the Pannonian
plain.
East of the keep is the two-storey chapel wing. The castle
chapel of Maria Schnee occupies the ground floor. It is mid-15th-century
late Gothic: three bays, polygonal choir with net vault, nave with cross
vaults on hollow-chamfered ribs and round shafts, pointed triumphal
arch. A north portal with ogee lintel opens to the large courtyard.
Fragments of a late-Romanesque portal frame survive in the west wall,
probably from an earlier entrance to the high castle. The high altar is
a well-preserved 1794 neo-Gothic piece in the so-called Hohenberg Gothic
style. The chapel was restored in 1642, 1793, and 1964.
The
residential ranges around the inner court mix 15th-century fabric with
baroque stair towers and living floors. About 20 rooms now house the
castle museum (weapons, Batthyány portraits including two Cranachs,
applied arts). Cellars and rock-cut rooms still show how the builders
used the cone itself as structure.
On the eastern rim of the plateau,
fragments of the original 12th-century Benedictine monastery wall
remain. King Béla III confiscated the monastery and converted its stone
buildings into the first royal stone castle; those eastern traces are
the oldest standing architecture on the hill.
Materials and
construction logic
Bedrock: volcanic tuff and basalt used as both
foundation and carved space.
Early masonry: local rubble and ashlar
in the keep and chapel.
Later fortress: large brick volumes
(Scheibelturm, bastions, casemates) typical of 16th-17th-century
Hungarian-Habsburg border works.
Roofs: originally tiled; most were
stripped after Maria Theresa’s roof tax (1775). The keep and chapel kept
their coverings. Modern restoration re-roofed selected ranges to the
late-18th-century appearance.
Defensive geometry still reads clearly:
angled approaches, overlapping fields of fire from half-round and square
towers, casemates covering dead ground, and a final rock tunnel that
forces attackers into a killing zone before they reach the inner court.
What you see today
The silhouette is dominated by the
copper-capped keep, the chapel roof, and the red-brick western and
southern walls sitting on green cliff. A funicular on the east slope now
carries visitors past the old monastery ruins. The high castle and
museum occupy the compact inner core; the outer bailey remains an open
meadow framed by ruined and restored artillery works. The whole ensemble
is a protected monument and is presented in roughly the state it had
around 1800, after the great 16th-17th-century enlargement and before
total abandonment.