Alt-Teufenbach Castle

The Lords of Teuffenbach are first mentioned in a document in 1168 with Otto von Teuffenbach. They were ministeriales of the Carinthian and Styrian dukes. It is assumed that they built the castle of the same name at the beginning or around the middle of the 12th century. In 1358, Alt-Teufenbach was first referred to as such.

In the 14th century, the Welzer family gained shares in the fortress through marriage. In 1440, Tristram von Teuffenbach was granted the responsible regional court by King Frederick III. He was able to buy back the shares of the Welzer family. When Hans Friedrich von Teuffenbach fought against the Emperor, he was accused of high treason and declared to have forfeited his Styrian estates.

Alt-Teufenbach went as a gift to Gregor Sidenitsch in 1642. After the Peace of Westphalia, however, it had to be restituted to Hans Friedrich's daughter, Anna Sidonia Countess von Löwenstein. She handed over the lordship to her cousin Hans Carl von Teuffenbach in 1649. After his death in 1671, the castle fell to Georg Christian von Saurau. His widow sold it in 1689 to Ferdinand Prince von Schwarzenberg, who moved the administration to Murau, which led to the old fortified building already being a ruin by 1815.

This was acquired in 1890 by the writer Auguste Groner, partially renovated and made habitable again. The Barons von Teuffenbach managed to buy the castle from her. It has since been restored again and is still in the possession of this ancient Styrian family.