Bertholdstein Castle

The ruin Bertholdstein is the ruin of a hilltop castle near Hollenburg in Lower Austria (today part of the municipality of Krems an der Donau).

In the 12th century, the Bishop of Freising pushed for the establishment of a separate parish in Hollenburg, and a successor had his castle built west of the village in the 13th century. Under Bishop Berthold von Wehingen (1381–1410), the castle complex was expanded; the castle is named Bertholdstein after him. Due to acts of war, there were repeated destructions over the centuries; after the Swedes in 1645/46 and the Turks in 1683, the plague broke out, and a fire in 1698 largely destroyed the complex, which has been a ruin ever since.

In the course of secularization in 1805, the Freising possessions in Austria were confiscated by the imperial Cameral Fund and auctioned off in 1811. The castle was acquired by the banker and later Baron Johann Jakob von Geymüller. The family still owns the ruin today.

Below the former northern outwork, the remains of the Roman Burgus Hollenburg were discovered in 1981.