Hörtenberg Castle

Heinrich von Eschenloch is referred to as "comes de Hertenberch" in a contract from 1239. This is also the first documented existence of a noble seat. In 1286, the Counts of Eschenloch sold the castle and lordship to Count Meinhard II of Görz-Tyrol, to which the former liege lords, the Dukes of Bavaria, gave their consent in 1291. Hörtenberg became a princely territory and a regional court. Subsequently, the lordship was usually granted as frequently changing pawned property. Between 1293 and 1327, there were repeated expansion works on the castle. Among the pledge holders, the Lords of Matsch are particularly noteworthy, who owned Hörtenberg from 1363 to 1405. In 1448, the castle was part of the morning gift that Duke Sigmund gave to his first wife, Eleonora of Scotland. The administration of the lordship was now usually entrusted to appointed administrators.

In 1577, Archduke Ferdinand II redeemed the lordship, which had been pledged several times again, and handed it over to his wife Philippine Welser. In 1594, the castle came into the possession of Archduke Ferdinand's illegitimate son Christoph, who named himself after Hörtenberg. When he died in 1613, the lordship passed to Archduke Maximilian III, the Deutschmeister. In 1633, the Barons and later Counts Fieger von Hirschberg took over the pledge. They kept it until their extinction in 1805. However, the fate of the castle was already sealed in 1706 when a lightning strike caused the gunpowder stored in it to explode. Apart from the main tower, almost nothing remained of the complex. Since the administrators of the lordship had already moved to Telfs in the 17th century, the ruin was left to its fate.

The Counts Spaur and then the Barons von Goldegg followed the Counts Fieger as pledge holders. In 1824, Hörtenberg was again taken over by the state, but soon left to the Lener family. Father Alexander Lener had the tower restored and made accessible again in 1873. Soon after, the order of the "Poor School Sisters" bought the tower and a house that had emerged from the former outer bailey. In 1973, Dipl. Ing. Eugen Matt acquired the property. Currently, the ruin belongs to the municipality of Pfaffenhofen. In 2007, the already heavily overgrown area was cleared and the ruin was made accessible again.