Schloss Schwallenbach: A Historic Castle and Palace in Austria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- 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 page5 sections
History
Schloss Schwallenbach is a historic castle and palace in Schwallenbach, Austria, a cadastral community of Spitz in the Krems district of Lower Austria. A predecessor castle stood here before 1243, while the present complex originated after its destruction by troops of George of Poděbrady in 1463 and was rebuilt soon afterward. The site is protected as a historic monument.
Medieval lordship
Schwallenbach and Spitz once formed part of territory donated by Charlemagne to Niederaltaich Monastery, a Bavarian Benedictine monastery founded in the eighth century. The place-name probably derives from the personal name Sualo or Suelo. From the mid-thirteenth century, the dukes of Bavaria acted as bailiffs, exercising protective and administrative authority over the monastery’s lands. Their sub-vassals, the Kuenringer family, appointed members of the lower nobility as feudal holders.
The first known lords of the castle were Engelschalcus and Chunradus de Swelpach, who were recorded in 1243. Later feudal holders included the Kapeller family, Seyfried Ritzendorfer, Jörg Scheck of Aggstein, and the brothers Hans and Michael Schratt. Their successors, the Neidegger family, joined Schwallenbach with Spitz and Zeißing.
Destruction, rebuilding, and ownership
In 1463, forces of George of Poděbrady, the fifteenth-century King of Bohemia, burned the settlement and castle during military campaigns in the Austrian border regions. Both were rebuilt soon afterward. Between 1504 and 1507, the former Bavarian possession passed to the Habsburgs, the dynasty that ruled Austria for centuries.
Schwallenbach became hereditary freehold property of the Kuefstein family in 1590. Anna of Polheim of Ottenschlag and Aggstein later owned the estate and transformed the castle into a palace. She died in 1617. Around 1650, ownership passed to Franz Melchior Forest. In 1871, the Vienna Citizens’ Hospital Fund acquired the property, which later passed into private ownership.
Until 1960, the palace housed the popular inn Das Glöckerl von Schwallenbach, the name by which Schloss Schwallenbach is also known.
Remains
Palace complex and tower
Schloss Schwallenbach stands within the settlement, approximately 3 kilometres upstream from Spitz and opposite the branch church of St. Sigismund. The surviving building is an irregular, two-storey structure with four wings dating from the sixteenth century. These wings surround an approximately square courtyard, while the northeastern corner is chamfered.
A massive five-storey tower is incorporated into the south wing. Stone-framed windows from the mid-sixteenth century open the tower, whose upper edge is finished with renewed swallowtail crenellations. The tower remains integrated into the palace rather than standing as a separate structure, reflecting the complex’s development from a fortified medieval site into a later residential palace.
