Schloss Grubhof: A Historicist Manor Residence in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Austria
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Schloss Grubhof is a historic manor residence in Austria, in St. Martin bei Lofer, whose origins reach back to a medieval archiepiscopal fief and whose present appearance was shaped by nineteenth-century historicist rebuilding. The estate became a Salzburg noble residence in the sixteenth century before passing through several private owners and later serving as a forestry office, a planned hotel, and holiday accommodation.
Medieval fief and Salzburg manor
Grubhof was mentioned around 1300 as land held from the archbishop of Salzburg in return for obligations or service. At that time, the fief in Louer was held by Gebhard von Velben. From about 1325, the property was associated with the Grueber family and was later described as a Salzburg manor.
The estate remained within the Grueber succession for several generations. Heinrich Grueber was followed by his son Jakob, then by Ulrich Grueber in 1409 and Nicolas Grueber in 1428. A later owner, Hans Gruber, left a divided inheritance. His widow, Katrein Payrin, sold her half to her brother-in-law Conrad Gruber, while Adelgern Hunt acquired the other half after 1490. Conrad Gruber sold the estate to Wolfgang Pichler in 1518.
The Ritz family and noble residence
Salzburg princely councillor Ludwig Ritz acquired Grubhof in 1537 and expanded it in 1541 into a noble residence, or Ansitz, meaning a country seat associated with noble status rather than necessarily a fortified castle. His request for the privilege of noble exemption was rejected in 1546, although the residence appears to have held that privilege by 1593.
After Ludwig Ritz died, his three sons and five daughters inherited the property in 1561. Hermann Ritz later brought the divided inheritance together again. In 1620, Grubhof passed to his two sons, who sold it in 1624 to Hans Ludwig and Bernhard Wilhelm Ritz, members of a collateral branch of the family.
The Ritz line ended with the death of Emeran Raimund Ritz in 1708. His widow, Maria Barbara Goldin, married Baron Franz Dietrich von Motzl, who acquired the other heirs’ shares in 1712. The estate then passed through Franz Josef von Motzl to Baron Georg Franz Anton von Motzl zu Grubhof.
Late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century changes
Georg Franz Anton von Motzl undertook extensive renovations between 1783 and 1785. After his widow’s death, the property passed to her niece Waldburga Auer von Winkl, who was married to Baron Anselm Karl von Imhof. In 1816, the estate was converted into allodial property, meaning that it became privately held land rather than a feudal tenure.
Ferdinand and Johann Nepomuk von Rehlingen acquired the castle through an exchange in 1828. The following year, the Bavarian Royal Salt Office in Reichenhall purchased the building and its associated land at auction. Its main interest lay in the extensive forest estate, and Grubhof subsequently served as a forestry office.
Josef Faistauer bought the castle in 1868 and transferred it to his son Josef Faistauer in 1879. The Salzburg painter Anton Faistauer was born at Grubhof. In 1890, the German artificial-fertilizer industrialist Herrmann Schmidtmann acquired the estate and its surrounding grounds. He enlarged the property substantially and commissioned the Salzburg architect Josef Wessicken and master builder Jakob Ceconi to reconstruct and renovate the building.
During Schmidtmann’s ownership, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, who ruled from 1888 to 1918, and the king of Bavaria were guests at the castle. The building’s later form reflects the Gründerzeit, a period of rapid economic growth and historicist architecture in the German-speaking lands, especially during the late nineteenth century.
Twentieth-century ownership and protection
Schmidtmann’s daughter, Florence von Poser, acquired the property in 1923. She was married to the German general Arno von Poser und Groß-Naedlitz, who died in 1940, and she died in 1963. From 1956, ownership was divided into thirds among Hildegard Wolff, Maria Spitzy, and Florence Schandl, née Dachmann.
In 1964, the Cologne architect Johann Wilhelm Zepp became the owner. He carried out an expensive restoration and modernized the interiors with the intention of establishing a luxury hotel, but the hotel never opened. Andreas Schuller of Munich continued the expansion work from 1970.
Alpenbau GmbH acquired the property in the 1980s and adapted it for holiday apartments and restaurant facilities. Schloss Grubhof remains privately owned and has been protected as an Austrian monument since 1993 under protection number 61139.
Remains
Building and grounds
Villa-like building
Schloss Grubhof stands in the northern part of St. Martin bei Lofer in Salzburg’s Zell am See District. The large building has the character of an oversized villa. Few visible traces of the medieval manor survive, because the earlier core was enclosed within a new facade in 1892. An extension on the tower side accompanied this work and transformed the building into a much larger residence.
The exterior is enriched with projecting bay windows, balconies, and small turrets. A bay window is a windowed section that projects from the wall, while a turret is a small tower-like projection. The roof structure is especially elaborate, reinforcing the building’s late nineteenth-century historicist character.
Interior decoration
The interiors retain carefully executed decoration. Apartments contain elaborate stucco work, made from molded ornamental plaster, while frescoes decorate the ceilings. Later conversion works created 32 holiday apartments and a restaurant on the ground floor, giving the historic building a new internal arrangement while retaining its decorated spaces.
Park statue
An extensive park surrounds the castle. It contains a life-size eighteenth-century marble statue of Neptune with a dolphin, adding a sculptural feature from the period before the nineteenth-century enlargement of the estate.
