Schloss Oberthal: A Historic Castle Estate in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- 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 page15 sections
History
Schloss Oberthal is a castle complex in Austria’s municipality of Thal, Styria, with a four-wing core dating from the seventeenth century and a Baroque character. Its history reaches back to the first half of the thirteenth century, when the site was associated with Waldsdorf Castle.
From Waldsdorf Castle to Oberthal
A simple farm stood on the site and was first mentioned in a document in 1322. After Ulrich von Waldsdorf, the last of the Lords of Waldsdorf, died in the first half of the fourteenth century, his widow sold the castle and farm to the Lords of Windisch-Graetz. They developed the farm into a noble residence known as Oberthal.
In 1443, Oberthal passed to Ruprecht von Windisch-Graetz, while his brother Sigmund received what is now Unterthal Castle. Oberthal was probably destroyed during the Ottoman incursion of 1532, a military advance into the region, since the estate was described as deserted in 1542. Erasmus von Windisch-Graetz commissioned a major remodeling in 1563.
Seventeenth-century rebuilding
Erasmus Sigmund Freiherr von Windisch-Graetz sold the estate in 1605 to Bernhard Walter von Walthersweil. Walthersweil later sold it to Philibert Schranz after becoming dissatisfied with the income produced by the lordship. In 1624, the property passed to Siegmund Friedrich von Trauttmansdorff, who served as Styrian provincial governor from 1660 to 1674.
In 1660, Trauttmansdorff commissioned the master builder Domenico Rossi to carry out an extensive remodeling. A formally planned French-style park, organized around geometric design and controlled views, was laid out behind the castle during this work. The rebuilding established much of the character associated with the estate’s seventeenth-century core.
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century changes
Leopold von Warnhauser acquired Schloss Oberthal from the Trauttmansdorff family in 1798. The Barons of Walterskirchen held it from 1841 to 1905, and in 1846 they remodeled the castle in the English Gothic style, a nineteenth-century revival of medieval Gothic architecture that used features such as towers, battlements, and pointed forms.
A Slovenian timber-trading company acquired the property in 1905. Around 1935, Austrian Minister of Trade Friedrich Schuster purchased and renovated the neglected castle. He removed the nineteenth-century historicist additions, restoring the visibility of its earlier Baroque character, and renovated the arcaded courtyard in Renaissance style.
Hamburg shipowner John Theodor Essberger acquired Oberthal in 1940. After the Second World War, the property was treated as German property, and Russian forces followed by British forces occupied the castle. A British command headquarters operated there until 1955, while part of the building was leased to the British Embassy until 1957. In 1958, Schloss Oberthal returned to its former owner’s family. It remains privately owned by the descendants of the owner, the von Rantzau-Essberger family.
Remains
The surviving estate occupies the eastern slope of the Kogelwald, a low ridge in the southwestern part of Thal. Its principal building is a four-wing complex organized around an inner courtyard. The seventeenth-century core is accompanied by nineteenth-century defensive-looking additions, restored historic interiors, a chapel, an underground passage, and an extensive walled park.
Exterior defenses and courtyard
Gate towers and corner towers
A gate tower and an outer gate building mark the approach to the complex. Both have crenellations, the notched parapets traditionally associated with fortified buildings, and both date from the nineteenth century. Two strongly projecting octagonal corner towers stand on the northern side of the castle. They were remodeled in the English manner during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Courtyard entrance
A rusticated round-arched portal leads into the inner courtyard. Rustication emphasizes the masonry as rough or heavily jointed, giving the entrance a solid appearance. Above the portal, an inscription installed in 1661 commemorates the remodeling undertaken for Siegmund Friedrich von Trauttmansdorff. His coat of arms is placed above it within a broken ornamental gable.
Arcaded courtyard
The courtyard is bordered on three sides by three-storey colonnades, roofed galleries supported by columns. Repeating arches create the arcaded arrangement, which was renovated in Renaissance style during the nineteenth century. A separate courtyard portal bears the date 1563 and incorporates a red-marble stone belonging to Bishop Andreas von Trauttmansdorff, placed into the structure in 1515.
Chapel and interior rooms
Castle chapel
The Baroque castle chapel was built in 1656 and dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, the Christian figure associated with preaching repentance and baptizing Jesus. Stucco decorates the chapel, whose altar painting shows the Baptism of Jesus Christ, a central New Testament subject in Christian art. The painting dates from the same period as the chapel.
Reception and adjoining rooms
The reception rooms contain paintings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The dining hall is furnished with antlers, armor, and weapons. Two rooms adjoining the chapel retain stucco ceilings from the middle of the seventeenth century together with paintings set into the walls on canvas.
Passage and park
Underground passage
An underground passage dating from around 1563 runs in the direction of Graz. Several hundred metres of it remain passable, preserving a subterranean element of the estate’s sixteenth-century structure.
French park
An extensive French park surrounds the castle and is enclosed by a wall. Its formal design includes grottoes, artificial or natural cave-like garden features, and a pleasure house, a small recreational building within the landscaped estate. Both the grottoes and the pleasure house date from the middle of the seventeenth century.
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