Burg Klingenberg


12th century: The castle was built by the powerful noble Lords von Perg-Machland-Clam, who organized forest clearing in the Machlandviertel area from the Danube to the Nordwald (North Forest).

 

1218 Ulrich von Clam-Velburg was killed in Egypt during the 5th Crusade, so the castles of Clam, Klingenberg, and Ruttenstein passed over to the provincial Prince Leopold VI of Babenberg (Plasenstein Castle remained in the possession of widow Kunigunde). The Babenbergs were followed by Přemysl Otakar II and finally by the Habsburgs. 1279-83 Klingenberg was the dowry of Catherine the Habsburg to Duke Henry of Bavaria, making it a pledge for centuries afterwards.

 

1358 the Lords von Wallsee lived in the castle, followed by Jans der Trauner and from 1395 the Preuhafen brothers.

 

1435 the castle passed to Hardneyd of Liechtenstein and in 1491 to the Prüschenk brothers who also built the Greinburg castle.

 

From 1500, the castle was owned by Lasla von Prag (builder of the castle Pragstein / Mauthausen) before it was destroyed in

 

1540 by the Hussites. 1562-1584 Gabriel Kollonitz renewed construction. 1588 Lorenz Schütter bought the castle for 12,204 guilders and turned it into a fief of the provincial prince. He turned Klingenberg into a Renaissance castle, “one of the most noble places in Austria”. Schütter was the imperial “Oberdreißiger zu Ungarisch-Altenburg” (chief customs duty collector; the name comes from the collection of a duty of 1/30 of the value of the goods). His artistically designed tombstone is located in the church in Münzbach. 1630 his son Georg sold the property together with the market town of Münzbach to the Waldhausen monastery. The administrative seat was moved, and since then only a gatekeeper or administrative clerk lived here, then it was occupied by poor tenants.

 

1700 the fortified structure’s deterioration was accelerated by a lightning strike. 1855 part of the bergfried collapsed.

 

1792 after the abolition of the Waldhausen Monastery, Klingenberg passed to the Domkapitel Linz.

 

 

Old view of Klingenberg (1634, Vischer)
Old view of Klingenberg (1634, Vischer)

Points of interest

 

We owe the private initiative to the fact that the ruins have been secured and partially maintained since 2013. The castle is situated on three levels. You can get from the outer bailey to the stable through the round arch gate, or via the gatehouse on foot to the bailey. The well, 62 fathoms or 118 meters deep, was recently cleaned to a depth of 12 meters. The high castle includes an impressive southern fortification wall 24 meters high, and a half-ruined and timbered tower called the bergfried. There are remarkable massive cantilevers of the defensive corridor at the palas.

 

LEGEND

Once a Knight of Klingenberg took a crusade to the Holy Land. During his absence, the knight's wife gave birth to nine children at the same time as the fruit of her conjugal infidelity. When, after returning to his native castle, the knight asked about the cause of the whimpering, his wife told him that these lamentable sounds were from the offspring of a dog. Having come to the true cause, the angry knight put the unfaithful wife and the nine children  into a barrel studded with sharp nails and rolled down the steep slope on the east side of the castle. On the west side of the homestead below, the bar burst, so that the knight's wife and her nine-nines were thrown out and left dead. Still today this homestead is called "Neunlinger" and reminds of this bygone event.