Freienstein Castle

Around the year 1000, the area around Ybbs and Freienstein was owned by the Counts of Ebersberg. A forged document from 1037 indicates that the Ebersbergers had soon handed Freienstein over to the Geisenfeld monastery they founded. However, under the last Babenbergs, the castle was already princely property.

In 1268, a Gaidemar de Vrienstain is mentioned, who had his seat here. King Rudolf I granted Freienstein to Konrad von Sumerau. However, the latter harassed traveling merchants on the Danube, which prompted Duke Albrecht I to conquer and destroy the castle in 1284. The castle was rebuilt and subsequently mostly mortgaged.

Among the mortgagees were the Lords of Wallsee, the Dachsberg family (1381), and the Lords of Eyczing (1440). In 1453, Pankraz von Plankenstein received the castle as a fief, but first had to rebuild it. His son Hans bequeathed Freienstein to the Lords of Toppel, who owned it until after 1500. In 1522, Gabriel von Salamanca, Count of Ortenburg, received Freienstein as a free property from Archduke Ferdinand. In 1598, the Barons of Althan acquired the property, but it passed to Johann Linßmayr zu Weinzierl as early as 1604. In 1612, his estates went to the Zinzendorf family and in 1657 to the Starhemberg family. They moved the administration to Karlsbach and let Freienstein fall into disrepair. As a result of financial difficulties, Freienstein was sold in 1933. The ruins today belong to the Hatschek family.