History of Schloss Trautenfels

1261: First mentioned in the records as Burg Neuhaus (castrum novum [= new castle] in the Enns Valley).

1282: Burg Neuhaus passed into the possession of the Archbishop of Salzburg by way of exchange for Burg Strechau. The castle was reconstructed after having been reconquered and destroyed in battles against the Duke of Styria at the end of the 13th century.

1460: Wolfgang Praun of the Hallinger family (= influential leaseholders of the brine boiling pans), who was appointed as pfleger (ruler of the castle), is expressly described as Herr (Lord) of Neuhaus in the records.

1493–1594: The ownership of the castle passed to the Hoffmanns who were one of the most powerful and wealthy Styrian noble families as well as staunch and hugely influential supporters of the Protestant faith. Neuhaus developed into a centre of the Reformation in the Enns Valley. The castle was duly extended.

1574: The Hoffmanns erected an Evangelical Church that was demolished by the Reformation Commission as early as 1599. Located within 20 minutes’ walking distance towards the Grimming mountain, the foundations of the church, which were excavated in 1992, now serve as a memorial to commemorate those turbulent times.

1594/1600–1652: The Protestant Praunfalk family was initially holder of pledge and later owner of Neuhaus before going into exile to Nuremberg on religious grounds.

1664: Count Siegmund Friedrich von Trauttmansdorff acquired the building, converted and refurbished it, naming it Trautenfels. Carpoforo Tencalla painted the high-quality frescoes on the second floor and in the castle’s chapel around 1670, while Alessandro Sereni created the stuccos. The Trauttmansdorffs owned the castle until 1815.

1878: Count Josef Lamberg finally bought the property after the castle had changed hands several times. His wife Anna’s dowry, daughter of Steyr-based armaments manufacturer Josef Werndl, together with his own fortune, enabled him to renovate the rather neglected castle and furnish it comfortably.

1904: After the Count’s death, his widow Countess Anna Lamberg-Werndl managed the estate. During the interwar years, however, growing economic problems began to severely affect the castle’s proper maintenance.

1941: With the help of her four adult children, Countess Anna Lamberg-Werndl sold the castle to German Reichspost. Due to the war however, the planned training centre for executive staff, including the international centre for communications engineering and the European Post Association were never realised.

1945: After the collapse of National-Socialist rule, the British Occupation Forces in Austria ran the German-owned building. During the first post-war years, the castle served additionally as temporary accommodation for up to 300 refugees. Subsequently, the Republic of Austria became owner of the building complex.

1950: The Styrian Youth Hostel Association moved into the castle, using the rooms on the ground floor, intermediate floor and third floor.

1951: The Province of Styria rented the representation rooms on the first floor of the building and commissioned Karl Haiding to develop a museum for the District of Liezen. Prior to special exhibitions, he collected objects and documentation on the topics of beekeeping and gingerbread making, forestry and timber and Alpine pasture farming in Styria.

1959: The Republic of Austria sells Trautenfels Castle together with its grounds for an appreciation price and "donates" 750,000 shillings to the Youth Hostel Association with the condition that it be used to renovate the damaged weir bastions. The renovation work was carried out between 1960 and 1962.

1959: The Heimatmuseum was officially opened on 9th August as a local museum for the District of Liezen and as a department of the multidisciplinary museum Joanneum (founded by Archduke Johann in 1811).

In 1971, Schloss Trautenfels was renamed “Landschaftsmuseum Schloss Trautenfels” and since 2011, the Museum Department is called Schloss Trautenfels. The permanent exhibition continued as a Landschaftsmuseum.

1982: Despite the youth hostel’s high popularity (up to 30,000 overnight stays per year), growing financial problems and urgently required repairs to the roof, façade and interiors resulted in the hostel’s closure. The boarding school for agriculture and forestry, which had been housed in some parts of the building complex since 1969, relocated to Gröbming.

1982: A Rescue Committee for Schloss Trautenfels formed around Museum director and initiator Volker Hänsel and the Verein Schloss Trautenfels association was constituted in December 1983. Regional politicians supported the preservation of Schloss Trautenfels as a “national and international cultural centre with a museum for the District of Liezen”.

1983: The municipality of Pürgg-Trautenfels purchased the castle for a token sum of one Schilling with the aid of the Province of Styria. The municipality then leased the castle to Verein Schloss Trautenfels, which aimed to renovate and maintain the castle as well as to promote and support the Landschaftsmuseum Joanneum.

1984–1989: In order to literally “rescue the castle from dilapidation”, urgently needed renovation work to the roof, façade and windows were funded and implemented through subsidies and donations.

1990–1992: Schloss Trautenfels was chosen to stage the Styrian Provincial Exhibition Lust und Leid. Barocke Kunst, barocker Alltag (Joy and Sorrow. Baroque Art, Baroque Life). The necessary funding for the building’s total renovation and a modern infrastructure concept for the Museum and exhibition area was released. The castle’s complete refurbishment was planned and implemented in 20th century-style by architect Manfred Wolff-Plottegg in collaboration with the Federal Monuments Office and the clients.

1992: Layers of colour began to emerge in the course of renovation work on the intermediate floor. From 1997 to 1999, those 16th century murals were uncovered. The so-called “frescoed room” was then made accessible to the public.

1994: The municipality of Pürgg-Trautenfels let Schloss Trautenfels to the Province of Styria – Landesmuseum Joanneum.

1998: Opening of the new Landschaftsmuseum featuring 13 topical rooms arranged in the form of a kaleidoscope presenting the cultural and natural history of the Styrian Enns Valley and Ausseerland.
 

2006–2007: Woodland on the castle hill was cleared, revealing the whole complex with its impressive bastions and the castle’s base wall masonry, and thus restoring a historically significant situation.

2007–2010: A large section of the south-western bastion collapsed, leading to a structural investigation of the entire wall and subsequent closure of the access road for safety reasons – necessitating the construction of a temporary access road. Following funding approval by the Provincial Government of Styria in 2009, a comprehensive restoration was undertaken, and structural security established by means of self-supporting ground anchors in order to preserve the historical building fabric, ultimately. By night, outdoor lighting additionally accentuates the historical building as a visual landmark.