Burg Neuaist: A Medieval Hill Castle in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Austria
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page8 sections
History
Burg Neuaist is a medieval hill castle in Austria, near Pregarten in Upper Austria, associated with the Lords of Aist and probably originating in the eleventh century. The family and the castle took their name from the Feldaist River. Neuaist occupied a strategic position within the Aist family’s possessions between the Feldaist and Kleine Gusen rivers, an area extending from Mauthausen to Neumarkt in the Mühlkreis.
The Lords of Aist
The Lords of Aist acquired estates in the eleventh century west of the area known as the Regensburg Luß. Their holdings did not form a single territorial lordship, but included Burg Neuaist and Burg Altaist. Although the family first appears in written records during the twelfth century, ceramics and other archaeological evidence indicate activity at Neuaist from about 1000 to 1250, with the strongest concentration in the second half of the twelfth century.
Members of the family included Perthe de Agasta, recorded between 1125 and 1147, and Dietmar or Ditmarus de Agasta, mentioned between 1139 and 1171. Ditmarus was probably not the same person as the poet and minnesinger Dietmar of Aist, a medieval German-speaking poet and singer associated with courtly love poetry, who lived from about 1140 until after 1171 and was buried at Aldersbach Abbey.
Transfer of the Aist possessions
Sophia of Aist, daughter of Gottfried of Aist and sister of Dietrich of Aist, transferred Neuaist and Altaist with their associated demesne lands to Adelram I of Perg during the twelfth century. After Adelram died while fighting at Acre, Sophia married Engelbert of Schönheringen and Blankenburg, and the possessions passed to him and their children. Sophia died in 1175 and was buried at Wilhering Abbey. Her son Adalbert of Perg died in 1185, while Ulrich II, the last of the Blankenburg line, died in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade in 1192.
Dietrich of Aist, who had no children, gave property to Aldersbach Abbey, where he had chosen to be buried, and also made donations to Baumgartenberg Abbey and Garsten Abbey. In 1171 he donated to Garsten, of which he was the advocate, and transferred the estate of Hirtina to Aldersbach with the consent of Sophia, Adalbert, and Engelbert.
Disputes and Babenberg control
A dispute over the estate of Hertgersdorf involved Rehewinus, the burgrave of Altaist, who had previously administered it. Otto III of Lengenbach, the bailiff of Regensburg Cathedral, ordered a settlement under which Rehewinus surrendered his claim in return for 20 talents. After Dietrich’s death, Duke Heinrich II Jasomirgott, a Babenberg ruler of Austria, appropriated the Garsten possessions in the Riedmark.
The 1230 land register of Duke Leopold VI, another Babenberg ruler, includes the former possessions of the Lords of Aist. This indicates that they had entered Babenberg ownership. Neuaist and Altaist were no longer mentioned and were probably already ruins by that time. Archaeological soundings by Alfred Höllhuber recovered eleventh-century ceramics. The site is not legally protected as a monument.
Remains
Castle setting and defensive layout
Neuaist occupied a rocky projecting spur on the orographic left bank of the Feldaist, meaning the river’s left side when facing downstream, opposite the Kriehmühle. The surviving remains consist of the substructure of a castle plateau rather than an intact standing building. Two section ditches originally protected the site. The main castle stood on the principal plateau, while an outer bailey lay beyond the second ditch.
Main plateau and access
The main-castle plateau includes an elevated rocky area, with a surviving fragment of wall in its southwestern part. Cuttings in boulders within the river indicate where a wooden bridge was once placed. By May 2022, young woodland covered most of the castle plateau.
Archaeological evidence
Soundings at the castle produced ceramics dating from approximately 1000 to 1250, particularly from the second half of the twelfth century. This evidence has led to the interpretation that Neuaist may be older than Burg Altaist. Neolithic finds from the castle rock and its slope show that the location was used before the medieval castle was established.
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