Mittersill castle

P3

Schloss Mittersill

Schloss Mittersill is located near the village of Mittersill in the Upper Pinzgau, Zell am See, Province of Salzburg ( Thal Bach 1 ). The castle has been preserved in its physical expression of 16th century despite several fires today. Strikingly closed by a parapet and arranged in a horseshoe shape for the building of castles. On the west side they are dominated by two massive round towers. Under the former palace you enter from the east of the courtyard by an advanced south gatehouse of 1537. In the southwest corner of powerful witches tower, the chapel is located in the upper floor is located. Access to almost flat courtyard leads past the so-called court house. Single storey have been inserted at the site of a former military corridor farm buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries. The Palas has an extending in a north-south direction gable roof with double-sided small hipping.

History

On the northern slope of the Salzach valley, located on a spur high above the valley floor, the castle was used since the Middle Ages strategic the valley road of Oberpinzgau and the mountain passes control to the Tyrol, which run from there to Pass Thurn in the north and the Felber Tauern in the south. The area was between the 10th and 14th centuries, particularly important for the trans -Alpine traffic.

Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

At the present site of the castle, 140 meters above the valley, was in 1150 a castle that was the seat of the county Pfleggerichts Oberpinzgau. By 1000 it belonged to the Counts of Matrei, 200 years later the Dukes of Bavaria, but came in the 12th century by barter to the archbishopric of Salzburg.

Schloss Mittersill is a foundation of the Counts of Lech Gmünd, who had the Oberpinzgau of the dukes of Bavaria as a fief. They called themselves according to their residence counts of Sulzau, or of Pinzgau, from 1180 Earls of Mitersele. The first is likely the castle as well have taken around 1150. 1228 came the county to the diocese of Salzburg and the castle was the seat of the nurse for the Oberpinzgau. This came about for a long time from the family of the lords of Felben. 1292 Gebhart here is called by Velben, 1344 Heinrich, 1347 Conrad and Hans 1360-63 and again Henry. In 1388 the castle was for a long time the Archbishop Pilgrim II of Puchheim as an abode.

In 1526 the castle was occupied, looted and burned during a peasant uprising. Archbishop Matthäus Lang struck with a mercenary army down the rebellion and forced the peasants, the castle rebuild. The now closed like Advanced castle was reinforced fortifications. For the case of sieges a well was dug in the courtyard. Above the archway of the entrance, the year 1528 is engraved ( completion). The chapel was completed in 1533; Year and coat of arms of the Archbishop are attached to the chapel ceiling. 1555 destroyed a renewed fire the hall and the gatehouse below. The reconstruction is carried out by local forces, so by the architect Leopold Winckler and the carpenter Gabriel Sayler. In 1562, the chapel was provided with a roof turret for one bell. Other alterations and extensions carried 1563/64: as a horse and cattle stables, baths and Zwinger Palace, stoves for rooms. 1597 again destroyed in a fire hall and Torstube. 1606, these parts are fixed and there is a Fischkalter created in the moat. The chapel is named as 1617 not consecrated in 1673 is mentioned as the patronal feast of the Holy Trinity. 1773 receives the castle a new shingle roof. 1774 a seven feet high oven for the prince's room is supplied. In 1800, the drawbridge is removed to the castle.

Time after the dissolution of the archbishopric of Salzburg

After the end of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, often changed its owners. In 1816 the k.u.k. District Court set up in the castle, though the castle is inhabited and managed until 1850 by caregivers. 1845, the order for cancellation of the castle chapel.

1881 by then located in the Austrian state-owned castle on the Welser citizens Anton Hahn was sold it but in 1882 the Countess Marie Larisch Mönich, born Baroness von Wallsee sold. This had renovated the castle by the Viennese architect Gangolf Emperor fundamentally. Overwhelmed Through these investments, the castle in 1885 left to the son of the architect, Karl Georg Kaiser. Other owners solve each other in rapid succession: Theodor Pöller (1894 ), Michael Wahl (1896 ), brewery director of Augsburg, Leopold and Marianne Philippi (1903 ), Countess Eugenie Clary Aldringens (1910 ), Margareta Jernberg from Stockholm ( 1919), born Weißenberger; Hugo von landlord to Altentann, academic painter from Munich took over the property in the same year. This designed the castle to romantic and taught here a collection of art. Financially overwhelmed the object falls to the banking house Lammer from Zell am See, which it sold in 1936 to the International sports and shooting clubs, which included many aristocrats, industrialists and movie stars. In July 1938, a fire broke out in the castle of, presumably caused by lightning, the buildings suffered severe damage. Only after the Second World War was a complete repair.

Schloss Mittersill in the Nazi era

After the German invasion in 1938 Mittersill Castle was confiscated; the National Institute for Inner Asian Studies Sven Hedin, sub- section of the club Ahnenerbe eV of the SS Main Office Personal Staff Reich Leader SS moved there premises. There are also female laborers were housed in a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp from 24 March 1944. It was Jehovah by six witnesses who were originally imprisoned at Ravensbrück concentration camp. On 8 May 1945, women were liberated by the Americans; a part of them were transferred back to Mauthausen and then released there, two women are apparently remained in Mittersill.

After 1945

After the renovation famous guests were from the 1950s to the castle to host - including the Shah of Iran and the Dutch royal couple, King Farouk of Egypt, the Duke of Windsor, Aristotle Onassis, the Aga Khan, Henry Ford II, Rita Hayworth, Gina Lollobrigida and Clark Gable.

The mid-1960s decided the management of sport and shooting clubs, to sell the castle. Thereof heard C. Stacey Woods, the then General Secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES ). With the help of generous donors succeeded the IFES, the lock to acquire in 1967, which served as a conference center, the conductor Andrzej Turkanik was.

In December 2009, two local families purchased the castle. It is thus for the first time in Pinzgauer hand, and after careful restoration, but without altering the external appearance, available since late 2011 as a 4- star hotel for the public.