Moated Castle Parz: A Historic Fortified Residence in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Austria
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page6 sections
History
Medieval Origins and Changing Ownership
Moated Castle Parz is a historic fortified residence in Grieskirchen, Austria, whose predecessor was a moated castle of unknown date. A moated castle was a fortified home protected by surrounding or nearby water defenses. The site was mentioned in 1220 in connection with Wernhart the Lehrbühler.
Ownership changed several times during the late medieval period. The Lehrbühler family transferred the moated castle to the Jörger of Tollet in 1393. It passed to the Oberhaimer family in 1400 and later came into the possession of the Pirchinger family.
The Pollheim Lordship
In 1514, Sigmund Ludwig von Pollheim acquired the lordship of Parz and the moated castle. A member of the Pollheim noble family, he commissioned Landschloss Parz, a larger manor castle, directly beside the older fortified residence. A manor castle served primarily as an aristocratic residence and estate center rather than as a specifically defensive stronghold.
Rebuilding and Cultural Use
Around 1800, the moated castle was largely rebuilt, leaving only remnants of the earlier structure. The neighboring Landschloss later provided accommodation for officials. Because of its deteriorated condition, the moated castle remained vacant from 1946 until 1963.
In the 1960s, the painter Hans Hoffmann-Ybbs and his partner Charlotte Buck established a cultural center in the building. The artists’ center supported artistic production and exhibitions, with extensive exhibition activity, and continued until 1998. Galerie Schloss Parz regards itself as the successor to that institution.
Jacinta Maria Mössenböck, a goldsmith, and her brother Laurenz Pöttinger, an art blacksmith, founded Galerie Schloss Parz in 2007. The gallery subsequently presented exhibitions involving internationally known artists. The property is owned by Georg Spiegelfeld-Schneeburg, who rented it in 2007 to the operators of the Castelvecchio restaurant and to the owners of the gallery. In spring 2010, he offered the complex for sale.
Remains
The Rebuilt Castle Complex
The present Moated Castle Parz consists of substantially rebuilt remains of the earlier moated castle. Only remnants of the former structure survived the major rebuilding around 1800. The building stands immediately beside the larger Landschloss Parz, creating a paired historic complex in the locality of Parz.
Galerie Schloss Parz occupies rooms on the castle’s first floor, continuing the building’s modern cultural role within its surviving historic fabric.
