Schloss Velden: A Renaissance Castle and Lakeside Hotel in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Austria
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
Schloss Velden is a Renaissance castle and hotel in Austria, located at Velden am Wörther See on the western shore of Lake Wörth in Carinthia. The castle was built for Bartholomäus Khevenhüller and completed in 1603, forming the centre of an estate that later became a hotel complex.
The Khevenhüller estate
In the late sixteenth century, Bartholomäus Khevenhüller, Baron of Aichelberg, acquired an estate in the village of Velden. A member of the influential Khevenhüller family, he combined aristocratic status with commercial activity and public office. The property initially contained only a mill, but Khevenhüller developed it by building a lakeside residence at a cost of 23,000 gulden. He also served as an official of the Carinthian estates and became burgrave of Klagenfurt in 1581.
The completed castle remained in Khevenhüller hands after his death in 1613. The Protestant Khevenhüllers were forced to leave Carinthia in 1629 during the Thirty Years’ War, the major European conflict of 1618 to 1648 that combined religious, dynastic, and political struggles. In 1639, Schloss Velden passed to the Dietrichstein family. Siegmund Ludwig von Dietrichstein, president of the Hofkammer, the Habsburg office responsible for administering confiscated property, appropriated the estate. The Dietrichsteins retained it until 1861, although family celebrations at the castle are documented only until 1716.
Fire, reuse, and transformation
A fire in 1762 destroyed large parts of the castle. The building received only a provisional restoration, and its corner towers had to be partly dismantled. Some surviving material was reused in other buildings. The property later served as a postal station and inn, marking a shift from aristocratic residence to more practical public and commercial uses.
In 1890, as tourism developed around the Carinthian lakes, the Viennese porcelain manufacturer Ernst Wahliss bought the deteriorated estate. He commissioned the architect Wilhelm Hess to remodel it as an exclusive hotel in the Neo-Renaissance style, a nineteenth-century revival of Renaissance forms. The facade was reconstructed with the help of older views of the castle.
Hotel, film location, and modern complex
Further alterations and extensions were undertaken in the 1920s and 1930s under Franz Baumgartner. The exterior was restored in 1993. Since 1952, Schloss Velden has also been used as a location for film and television productions. It became the setting for the Austrian-German television series Ein Schloß am Wörthersee, which was broadcast from 1990 to 1992.
Gunter Sachs acquired Schloss Velden in 1990 and arranged an extensive renovation. Ownership changed again in 2003, and a real-estate consortium opened the hotel under the Capella brand in 2007 in cooperation with the United States-based West Paces hotel group. Hypo Alpe Adria sold the property to Amisola Immobilien AG, owned by Karl Wlaschek, in 2011. The Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group has operated the hotel since 2012. The complex belongs to The Leading Hotels of the World and was expanded in 2013 with a modern addition containing a 3,600-square-metre spa facility.
Remains
Schloss Velden is arranged around a large rectangular principal building with four prominent five-sided corner towers. The towers have hooded roofs, each finished with a lantern. A hipped roof surrounds the main structure and incorporates dormers that open onto two attic storeys. The building’s different elevations reflect the levels of the ground: the lake-facing eastern front has three storeys, while the park-facing western front has two because the park lies higher.
Castle elevations and original details
Lake and park fronts
The eastern front facing Lake Wörth has arched openings before the ground-floor windows and doors, with continuous balconies above them. On the western side, the lower height of the park-facing front follows the raised level of the grounds. These elevations form the principal historic envelope of the castle after its later remodelling and restoration.
North portal and heraldic features
A medium-sized building extends the main structure to the north, while a longer pale yellow building extends it westward. Between them stands the old rustic north portal, marked with the date 1603 and framed by banded pilasters. Above it, an upper section between two obelisks carries the coats of arms of Bartholomäus Khevenhüller and his three wives. A connecting passage leads from the portal to the northwestern tower.
The western portal retains bifora windows above its round arch. A bifora is a window divided into two openings by a central column or mullion. The castle portal also serves as the heraldic symbol of the municipality of Velden am Wörther See.
Park, water features, and modern additions
Park enclosure
The castle park and west wing are bounded on their northern, western, and southern sides by a two-storey U-shaped modern building. The reception was formerly inside the north portal and is now in the new building directly in front of it.
Schloss pond
South of the complex lies the Schloss pond, formed by two fish-breeding basins. The pond drains into Lake Wörth and is supplied by the Bäckerteich, which lies 500 metres to the west.
Lakeside facilities and spa
The hotel complex includes a private bathing facility on Lake Wörth, a restaurant, and a boat pier. A modern addition completed in 2013 contains the 3,600-square-metre spa facility, extending the historic castle property with contemporary accommodation and service spaces.
