The remains of the castle can be visited
CastleFeldkirchen an der Donau-Freudenstein
Freudenstein Castle
The castle ruin of Freudenstein is located in the eponymous district of the municipality of Feldkirchen an der Donau in the Urfahr-Umgebung district of Upper Austria. The ruin is situated in this district directly above the Rossbach (also known as Freudensteinerbach).
Freudenstein was a medieval ministerial castle with a castle wall and a keep, as can still be seen in Georg Matthäus Vischer's engraving from 1674. The builders are unknown.
In 1278, Heinrich von Lichtenhag enfeoffed Ulrich von Lobenstein with the castle Vreudenstein. In 1284, Duke Albrecht I conquered the castle, which at that time belonged to Konrad von Sumerau. Around 1303, it was in the possession of Niedernburg Abbey near Passau. A deed of inheritance from August 28, 1308, shows that Freudenstein then belonged to the Piber zu Lobenstein family. Peter von Lobenstein thereby handed over "daz Haws zu Vreydenstain" to his stepbrothers Lewtold, Vlrich, and Fridreich Prüschenkh.
On May 1, 1333, the brothers Ulrich and Friedrich Prüschenkh sold their "rechtes Aigen das haws zu Vreydenstain" to Eberhard von Wallsee. He was a captain in the land above the Enns and had been chosen by the Habsburgs to break the power of the Schaunberger, who at that time wanted to establish their own country between Austria and Bavaria, by building defiant castles. Understandably, Count Heinrich von Schaunberg was against this purchase, as his ancestral seat was nearby. In the lawsuit, Duke Albrecht of Austria decided that Freudenstein should remain in the hands of the Wallsee family. Eberhard von Wallsee appointed burgraves to the castle, including: Trentzlin Walch, Hans Prembser (1376), and Hans Taumichler (1396). The old Freudenstein Castle was no longer strategically optimal due to the invention of the stone cannon. Therefore, Eberhard von Wallsee built Oberwallsee Castle in 1364 and transferred all rights (jurisdiction and urbarium) from Freudenstein to Oberwallsee. Wolfgang von Wallsee sold the castle to Bartholomeus Geymann in 1439, but the castle remained under the dominion of Wallsee.
Subsequently, Freudenstein was abandoned and has been a ruin since 1518.
Freudenstein Castle Ruin Today+
The castle complex is situated on a rocky spur, secured on three sides by steep rock faces. The access side was secured by two moats, partly carved out of the rock, one of which is still preserved. A preserved ashlar masonry is located on the south side. This sits on a retaining wall. Individual corbels protrude from the wall. On the actual castle area, no walls remain above ground. In a lower area, mortared walls can still be seen.
The existing Hausbauerngut (farmstead) was the Meierhof (manor farm) belonging to the castle. However, this is a successor building from the 1950s; the old Hausbauerngut stood further west, was separated from the hinterland by a (now leveled) moat, and featured a tower.
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Source: Wikipedia · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feldkirchen_an_der_Donau_%28Burgruine_Freudenstein-2%29.jpg
This description draws on the facts documented in the linked Wikipedia article; Wikipedia content is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wording and editing: Mobile History.
Location: 48.3519, 14.0968