Kronburg, Zams: A Medieval Rock Castle in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Austria
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Kronburg, Zams, is a partly preserved medieval rock castle in Austria, built around 1380 on a rocky spur above the Inn Valley. It stands about 3 kilometres east of Zams along a trade route, and Duke Leopold III authorized Hans von Starkenberg to establish the fortress in this elevated position.
From Starkenberg Fortress to Territorial Castle
The castle remained with the Starkenberg family until their uprising against Duke Friedrich IV failed in 1423. Kronburg then passed to the territorial ruler, who installed his own judicial administrators. Vrban Sigwein held the administrative office there in 1434.
In 1485, Archduke Siegmund pledged Kronburg to Ruprecht von Rindsmaul, a canon, or member of the clerical chapter, of Salzburg Cathedral. The future Emperor Maximilian I redeemed the castle in 1502 and granted it to his councillor Hans Fieger the Middle as a fief, meaning property held from a superior under defined obligations.
The Fieger Estate and Religious Foundations
The Fieger family retained Kronburg until its line died out in 1802, when the estate reverted to the state. During the Napoleonic period, the Bavarian government controlled it and later sold the Kronburg estate to the farmer Sebastian Stocker.
Chaplain Krismer acquired the roughly 90-hectare estate in 1845 and founded a monastery beside the church below the castle. His effort to establish an institute for the School Brothers in 1858 lasted only one year. The Poor School Sisters of Munich bought Kronburg in 1860 and sold it to the Tertiary Sisters, women religious associated with a Third Order, seven years later.
In 1952, a shortage of new members led the Kronburg Tertiary Sisters to merge with the Hallein School Sisters. The estate was offered for sale again in 2004. After the Tyrolean government rejected a proposed division between the Zams agricultural association and a private purchaser, the Sisters of Mercy of Zams took over Kronburg in December 2005. The castle ruin is protected as a listed monument in Austria.
Remains
Kronburg occupies a steep rocky summit between Zams and Schönwies, at about 1,066 metres above sea level and roughly 350 metres above the Inn Valley. The surviving complex is divided into an outer bailey, the less central fortified area outside the main castle, and an inner castle containing the principal residential and defensive buildings. Stone walls were laid in regular courses, while carefully dressed masonry appears around important openings and corners.
Outer Bailey
The outer bailey preserves upright battlemented masonry on three sides, with a passage leading into its interior. Two rows of post holes in the walls indicate a former building in the southern part, where traces of plaster also survive. The same area preserves evidence of a former wall-walk, a protected passage along the top of a fortification.
Main Castle
Gatehouse and Defensive Walls
In front of the palas, the principal residential and representative building of a medieval castle, a wall incorporates a gatehouse beneath a gabled roof. Its round-arched portal opens toward the castle interior, while a semicircular shell tower, a partly hollow projecting tower, extends from the wall running south. Another wall follows the route toward the palas on the southern side. Farther north, a tower on the slope toward the Inn Valley retains three masonry sides, battlements, and narrow loopholes for defensive shooting.
Palas
The five-storey palas stands south of the northern tower. Its western wall contains two elongated archer loopholes, and the building becomes narrower toward the top. Carefully dressed corner ashlar, made from precisely cut masonry blocks, frames the building, while stone surrounds remain around all its windows.
A round-arched portal with a Romanesque appearance on the left leads through an access passage toward the courtyard. Traces of a former ground-floor vault survive on both sides, and another vault remains at first-floor level. A second round-arched gate also opens into the courtyard. Four rows of post holes in the palas wall, together with wall-walks on the southern side at the second and third upper-storey levels, preserve evidence of the building’s former circulation and timber structures. A doorway at this side leads into the palas.
Courtyard Buildings
An eastern wall divides the courtyard and indicates that two adjoining three-storey residential buildings once stood there. Its northern section contains a round-arched gate, while the southern section has a larger portal with a Gothic appearance. The interior vaults have collapsed. The extent of construction in the southern section remains uncertain because an external oriel, a projecting enclosed window or small structural bay, from the northern building extends into it.
Chapel, Pilgrimage Church, and Monastery
Below the castle, on the saddle of the rocky approach, stands the chapel that later became a pilgrimage church. The monastery established beside the church forms part of the lower religious complex associated with the estate.
