Location: Kottmannsdorf, Carinthia Map
Constructed: 12th century
Hollenburg Castle is a well preserved medieval castle near a village of Kottmannsdorf, Carinthia province in Austria. Hollenburg Castle was constructed in the 12th century by Lord of Hollenburg on the Northern side of the Drava river valley. It was first mentioned in 1142 deed dedicated to foundation of Viktring Abbey. Hollenburg Castle sits on top of a rock cliff at 561 meters (1,841 feet) above sea level. Original medieval Hollenburg Castle was badly damaged in 1348 during Friuli earthquake. However it was quickly restored. A year later in 1349 Hollenburg Castle became registered as the seat of a land judge. Emperor Maximilian I sold the castle to Siegmund von Dietrichstein in 1514. Dietrichstein family greatly increased the size of Hollenburg Castle in the 16th and 17th century to its present appearance.
In 1811, the banker and later Baron Johann Jakob von Geymüller bought the Hollenburg estate from the imperial fund. In the years 1812 to 1814 he had the current castle built on this land. This castle has remained family-owned to this day with the current owner Rudolf Geymüller.
The castle is located on the main road on the western outskirts of the Hollenburg district, with the group of buildings stretching along both sides of the road. When the new building began in 1812, the old Freising nursing home was on the north side of the street, which is why the first buildings were erected on the south side of the street. In the course of the construction of this, an office building on the street and two two-storey parts of the building with a one-storey middle part were built. Behind them, a courtyard was laid out in the south-east and south-west, the latter is closed off by another building in the south. After the nursing courtyard on the north side of the street was demolished, the three-storey residential building with nine street-side window axes was erected there. On the first floor it is connected to a two-storey outbuilding by a covered passage. Behind the castle there is a large park with a special garden pavilion.