Location: Sankt Gotthard im Muhlkreis, Upper Austria Map
Eschelberg Castle is a castle in the village of Eschelberg in the municipality of St. Gotthard in Upper Austria's Mühlviertel region. It emerged from a castle first mentioned in 1205, which was rebuilt around 1598 into a palace in the Renaissance style.
The castle, built at the end of the 16th century, is a three-wing
building with a courtyard closed off by a wall on the west. It lies on a
ridge that slopes steeply on both sides at 396 m above sea level. A.
Elevation. Parts of the medieval Palas were included in the building
structure. The entrance wing is to the north. The Renaissance gate made
of granite blocks, above which the coat of arms of the lords of Gera can
still be seen, can be reached via a bridge. The adjoining gate hall is
built over with a tower with a tent roof. In the southeast of the palace
complex is the palace chapel (dedicated to the Holy Spirit) with a
lunette vault. It is built on the foundations of a former tower.
On the way to the castle, you will pass the former brewery on the left,
which today serves as the studio of the sculptor Magnus Angermeier. The
buildings of the former Meierhof are on the right hand side.
The
ruins of the previous medieval building are to the south of the castle
buildings. The core of the hilltop castle, a rectangular building block
around a courtyard, lay on the extreme spur of the slope in the south,
where high remains of the wall still tower today.
Eschelberg was first mentioned in a document in 1205 with its owner
Hainricus de Esilberch. Later, the spellings Eschelberch (1287),
Eschelwerch (1378) and Eschelburg (1569) also appear in documents.
Hainricus, probably a member of the Traun family, was a liege man of the
Bavarian Count von Leonberg, who owned the castle. In 1283 the
ministerial Otto von Traun was enfeoffed with Eschelberg. The fiefdom
changed in the 14th century to the diocese of Passau.
In 1560 the
Lords of Gera, who came from Carinthia, received the fiefdom, whose
possession had meanwhile passed to the Austrian sovereign. In 1598 the
people of Gera had the castle converted into a palace. Christoph von
Gera, deputy of the Austrian estate above the Enns, was struck in 1609
at a meeting of the country house. His son Erasmus II von Gera
(1588-1657), arrested as a Protestant rebel but later converted to
Catholicism, sold the Waxenberg dominion to Konrad Balthasar von
Starhemberg in 1647. He retained the rule of Eschelberg with
Lichtenhaag.
On March 31, 1654, Erasmus von Gera sold his
lordship of Eschelberg and Lichtenhag Castle, including all belongings,
to Konrad Balthasar von Starhemberg (1612–1687).
From then on,
Eschelberg formed an administrative unit together with Rottenegg,
Oberwallsee and Lichtenhag and had a total of 313 subjects. Eschelberg
Castle is still owned by the Starhemberg family.
After 1945,
refugees were housed in the castle, and in 1962 the castle tower burned
down completely due to a lightning strike. The palace complex was
renovated in 2010. Today the area can be rented for weddings and company
parties.