Gutenstein Castle

Gate Barbican

The gate barbican was already built around 1240. It consisted of coursed rubble masonry. The late Romanesque defensive wall with battlements is preserved. In the 16th century, the gate area was renewed. Above the gate, remnants of a projecting defensive platform are still visible today. The outer walls were last restored, raised, and provided with small rectangular loopholes in the 17th century.

Outer Bailey

The outer bailey was built around the same time as the gate barbican, around 1240. In the first half of the 17th century, it was extended to the east by a bastion-like addition. Here is the current entrance through a small round-arched portal and over a wooden staircase. In the area of the extension, there is a cistern carved out of the rock. Access to the late Romanesque outer bailey runs over the exposed foundations of the collapsed eastern curtain wall. On the north side, buildings stand in a daring position on a projecting rock. The two western ground-floor rooms date in their core from 1240. The buildings consist of coursed rubble masonry with rectangular loopholes with wooden lintels. On the east side, beam remnants of an oriel are visible. In the second floor of the intermediate wall, a spoliated, delicately chamfered round-arched portal from 1240 is preserved. In the course of the restoration work in 1630, the outer bailey was restored and enlarged by one room length to the east. An impressive pointed arch was also created to span a rock crevice. This was made by Master Eberhard from Ebenfurth in 1628. An apotropaic stone sphere, intended to ward off evil, is embedded in the outer shell of the eastern wall. On the southern wall of the outer bailey, the remains of the gate from the 16th and 17th centuries can still be seen. This was originally accessible via a ramp construction carved out of the rock.

Kitchen

On the way to the keep is the freestanding castle kitchen with a pyramidal roof. The kitchen was built in the second half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries. The kitchen is a vaulted room to the west with a small opening. The curtain wall to the west was built around 1240. The wall is coursed rubble masonry with simple light slits. Noteworthy are the beam remnants of an outwardly projecting battlement, to which a now walled-up portal made of ashlar led.

Keep

The keep is three-storied and is actually a keep-like gate tower with a chapel on the second floor. It was built around 1220 from coursed rubble masonry, partly with a trowel finish, and extended in 1240. When the tower was restored around 1600, a comprehensive alteration also took place. The roof with an onion dome was renewed in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The gate floor is a round-arched gate masonry with an external rebate. It was built between 1220 and 1240. The gate floor was altered in modern times during the deepening of the access level. The gate hall was raised and vaulted around 1600. The gate hall has three bays, with lunettes above. In the center, a groin vault with plastered ribs and rectangular fields can be seen. Above the plaster edge, which marks the original floor division, are remnants of the chapel's furnishings. These are two plaster layers. On the lower layer, there is a diamond motif with inscribed circles in red and yellow, painted around 1220. To the east, a floorboard and vertical construction joints of the apse are preserved.

The second floor is the chapel floor. The essentially Romanesque castle chapel has a high entrance in the west and an apse oriel in the east. Among the architectural details, the ashlar with the conical base of the apse oriel and the southern walls of the west portal are still recognizable. In the vaulted area of the gate hall, a remnant of the painted plinth zone has been preserved.

The chapel was extensively redesigned around 1600, during which the Romanesque apse oriel and windows were broken out, and the west portal was widened into a large, wide round arch. The sacred space was enlarged by incorporating the original third floor. A Romanesque round-arched opening was walled up in the process. Remnants of the painted ashlar framing with red joint lines in the east wall are still preserved today. The springing of the vault over profiled consoles is decorated with stucco bands depicting leaf and egg-and-dart motifs. A high gallery was installed in the west. In the southern wall are three round-arched windows grouped into a triangle. The baroque high altar of the parish church allegedly stood here. In the upper floor, incorporated around 1600, small transversely rectangular windows were created. The holes in the beams bear witness to a vanished clerestory.

Main Castle

The main castle originally extended further west. Today, remnants of coursed rubble masonry are still visible. During the renovations of the 16th and 17th centuries, the main castle was reduced in size and rebuilt without an inner courtyard. Of the Romanesque building fabric, parts of the southern outer wall have mainly been preserved, especially the beam negative of a residential building, where the vertical construction joint visible from the south proves the later addition of the keep. From the south, in the third floor of the south wall, remnants of a bifora window reused around 1600 can be seen. However, this was walled up again in the 17th century. The slender column of the window stands on a profiled base, the side jamb stones are chamfered. The monolithic lintel with two chamfered trefoil arches is now in the Gutenstein Local History Museum.

The three-story main castle was largely built around 1600 from mixed and brick masonry. A partially bricked basement filled with building rubble is followed by two residential floors, each divided into at least five living rooms. These were equipped with large rectangular windows. The jambs with projecting window sills are only partially preserved. To the east, there was originally a vaulted single-pillar room with an octagonal pillar. In the southeastern corner, remnants of a staircase are visible. In the southwestern room on the second upper floor, profiled stone consoles with vault springings are found. In the northwestern room, they were later converted into paneling. In this room and the one directly above it, there is a latrine bay facing west.

Around 1600, a wedge-shaped shield wall was built as the conclusion of the modern main castle against the western rock ridge.

The ruin, along with the church on Mariahilfberg, now adorns the coat of arms of the municipality of Gutenstein.