Riedegg Old Castle

The Riedegg castle ruin is the ruin of a hilltop castle in the identically named district of the municipality of Alberndorf in the Riedmark in the Urfahr-Umgebung district of Upper Austria.

Riedegg Castle was first mentioned in 1145, when the brothers Marchard and Gottschalk von Ridecco, also known as Haunsperg, inhabited the castle. The Haunsperger were a high-ranking noble family who owned a cleared area (= Luß) on both sides of the Haselbach and the Große Gusen and resided at Wildberg and Riedegg. The castle was then sent by Gottschalk the Haunsperger to the Prince-Bishopric of Passau to secure his daughter's inheritance and was taken back as a Passau fief. In 1211, the property reverted to the Diocese of Passau, which exercised feudal sovereignty until 1411. In 1256, Ulrich Lobenstein was named as the pledge-holding owner of the fief. Subsequently, the castle was administered by burgraves. The following are named as such: Artolf der Piber (1351), Hanns von Traun (1358), Friedrich der Walch (1361), Ulrich der Frodnacher (1373) and Eberhard der Stadler (1374).

In 1380, the Schaunberger were in pledge possession of Riedegg. After the lost Schaunberger Feud, they had to surrender the castle back to Passau without compensation. In 1395, the castle was pledged to Johann von Liechtenstein, who in turn sold the pledge lordship to Heinrich von Wallsee. In 1398, the pledge lordship was redeemed by the Diocese of Passau, but already in 1401, Riedegg was pledged to Kaspar and Jörg Starhemberg, Lords of Wildberg, and bought by them in 1411 together with the lordship of Gallneukirchen. In 1529, under Erasmus von Starhemberg, the castle was reinforced with the help of Turkish prisoners (stone cladding of the castle rock) and converted into Riedegg Castle. As late as 1594, Riedegg was counted among the refuge castles in times of war.