Gradisch Castle: A Renaissance Residence in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Austria
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Gradisch Castle is a Renaissance residence in Austria, situated in Gradisch in the municipality of Feldkirchen in Kärnten, Carinthia. The present building was newly erected by 1550, during the mid-sixteenth century, as a noble residence shaped by Renaissance architecture, the European revival of classical forms and proportions. The castle remains associated with the Goëss family and is protected as an Austrian monument.
The Paradeiser estate
The estate was first known as Paradeis, a name derived from the Paradeiser family. Members of this noble family served as ministeriales, medieval service nobles who held administrative, military, or court offices for higher-ranking rulers, and occupied senior governmental positions under the dukes of Carinthia. Wernhardus de Paradyso appeared as a witness in a document of 1192, while the family residence was first mentioned in 1250.
It is uncertain whether the 1250 reference concerned a medieval castle at the site of Gradisch Castle or the castle of Prägrad, another medieval stronghold in Carinthia. The name Gradisch means approximately “castle site” or “place where a castle once stood.” This has encouraged the possibility that an earlier medieval residence stood here and was connected with the Paradeiser family, although the identification remains uncertain.
The sixteenth-century residence
In 1550, Ferdinand I granted Georg von Neuhaus-Paradeiser the Burgfrieden for his newly built residence at Gradisch. A Burgfrieden was a legally recognized protected precinct or jurisdiction attached to a castle or noble residence. Ferdinand was then ruling as king and archduke; he became Holy Roman Emperor in 1558. The grant formally recognized the residence and its associated protected jurisdiction.
Changes of ownership
Eva Regina Paradeiser sold the castle in 1652 to Johann Freiherr von Platz, who was associated with the Archdiocese of Salzburg. In 1729, Polykarp Josef Graf Platz transferred the estate to Johann Anton von Goëss, a member of a secondary line of the Goëss family. The estate was subsequently made a fideicommissum, an entail restricting the transfer or division of property so that it remained within a designated family line. It has remained in Goëss family possession.
A Georg Paradeiser connected with the family was executed in Vienna in 1601 after a military court convicted him of surrendering the Hungarian fortress of Kanizsa to the Turks without a fight. This event belongs to the history of the Paradeiser family, not to an episode at Gradisch Castle itself.
Fire and continued use
In 1945, a fire destroyed the roof and its onion-shaped coverings. The roof was later reconstructed. The castle remains privately owned by the Goëss family and is in current use. The Republic of Austria protects it as a monument under designation number 34215.
Remains
Gradisch Castle stands on the northern slope of the Gallin. Its principal Renaissance structure is a substantial three-storey cubic building, with a rectangular courtyard enclosed on three sides by the main building and two later wings. The arrangement combines the formal proportions of the Renaissance residence with additions made during the seventeenth century.
Main building and corner towers
The main building has two strongly projecting round towers placed diagonally opposite one another at the northeast and southwest corners. Wooden shingles cover the towers, which are finished with characteristic onion roofs and lanterns. Bull’s-eye, or oculus, openings punctuate the upper attic level of the central building.
Wings, entrances, and façades
Two-storey ancillary buildings were added along the south side in the seventeenth century. Together with the main building, they create three wings around the rectangular courtyard. A round-arched portal in the west façade and a grooved portal in the east façade provide entrances to the courtyard. The eastern portal dates from the seventeenth century.
The two upper floors of the south façade contain Renaissance biforate windows, each divided into two openings. A late-Gothic portal with a richly moulded frame was transferred to this façade in 1920 from the abandoned Pfannhof Castle.
Chapel in the southwest tower
The southwest tower contains the castle chapel, which occupies two storeys and has a broad interior with a circular plan. Its narrow, tall window was opened after the tower space had been adapted for religious use. Stucco ribs arranged in a laurel design lead across the ceiling toward a central stucco rosette. The chapel also contains a canopy-shaped altarpiece from the beginning of the seventeenth century.
A painting of Saint Christopher from the second quarter of the sixteenth century decorates the west wall. On the north side, a round-arched portal leads to the main staircase. The staircase rests on corbels carrying relief ornament and a moulded head.
Decorated interior rooms
The ballroom on the third floor has a stucco ceiling dating to approximately 1680. It preserves the coat of arms of the Counts of Platz. Other rooms contain stucco decoration from around 1700, reflecting the changes made to the residence after its transfer to the Platz family.
