Burgruine Zelking: Ancestral Castle of the Zelking Family in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Austria
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page6 sections
History
Burgruine Zelking is a ruined castle in Austria, on the slope of the Hiesberg, and was the ancestral seat of the medieval and early-modern Zelking family. The site is first mentioned in 1100 in connection with Wernher von Zelking, an early member of the noble family.
The Zelking family
Wernher von Zelking’s origins remain uncertain. His connection with the high-free Hagenau family, a high-status noble lineage in the medieval German social order, has not been established, and the commonly proposed identification of him as a son of Reginbert III von Hagenau is unproven. Wernher was married and had a son, Ulrich I von Zelking, who continued the family line.
Petrissa von Zelking, who died in 1318, was another member of the family associated with the castle. She married Henry II of Liechtenstein, who died in 1314.
Changing ownership and refuge in 1683
The Lords of Zelking died out in 1634. The castle then passed by marriage to the Polheim family of Wartenburg and around 1662 to Andrä Joachim, Count of Sinzendorf.
During the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683, Ottoman raiding forces advanced far into western Lower Austria. Because Burgruine Zelking was still defensible, it served as a refuge for the civilian population of the surrounding area.
Abandonment and decline
The castle was abandoned after the manorial administration, meaning the management of the aristocratic estate and its local affairs, moved to nearby Matzleinsdorf. In 1802, Franziska, a widowed Countess Sinzendorf, married a Count Harrach in her second marriage. Later owners included the Counts of Rohrau and the Galgozy-Galantha family.
The castle probably began to fall into ruin at the end of the nineteenth century or the beginning of the twentieth century. Its history therefore extends from the early medieval Zelking family to later noble ownership and the castle’s eventual abandonment as an administrative residence.
Remains
Burgruine Zelking is a hillside ruin in the municipality of Zelking-Matzleinsdorf, Lower Austria, at approximately 300 metres above sea level. The surviving fabric consists of stonework dating from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, preserving part of the castle’s long architectural development.
Gate and defensive openings
A substantial round-arched gate remains recognizable within the ruin. Some loophole windows, narrow openings in defensive walls that allowed weapons to be used while exposing little of the defender, can also still be identified. Together, these surviving elements express the castle’s defensive character while the remaining stonework records its medieval and early-modern phases.
