Breitenegg Castle (Ruin)

The first documented owner of Breitenegg is Werner V. von Laaber, from approx. 1247 to 1289. The lords "Arnoldus de Chamer et filius eius Pertholt de Praittenecce", mentioned around 1190 and cited by local literature in this context, belong to a different area, most likely Preitenegg in Carinthia. However, the extent to which the lords of Breitenbrunn, who appeared around 1120, are connected with Breitenegg remains unclear. On the plateau west of Breitenegg, there was formerly "separated by a valley incision, a castle whose traces were still visible in the 1870s, but soon after completely disappeared due to agriculture", called the "old castle" by the people. Perhaps the ancestral castle of the Breitenbrunners stood here. Presumably, Werner IV. von Laaber inherited the lords of Breitenbrunn and built a new castle, Breitenegg, on the newly acquired land for his younger son Werner V., just as he had rebuilt Laaber Castle for his older son Hadamar. Werner IV. von Laaber is documented from 1209-1234. The architectural character of the castle also speaks for this period; the similarity of the layout and masonry technique also indicates a connection with Laaber Castle.

Werner V. von Laaber and Breitenegg sold the castle at the end of the 13th century to Gebhard Count of Hirschberg, who in 1302 sold it again to Hadamar II. von Laaber. From him, Heinrich von Gumppenberg, Bavarian hereditary marshal, bought "Praitenprunn" Castle in 1433. Around this time (1444), the castle chapel, consecrated to St. Koloman, is documented. Already bought back in 1463 by Ulrich von Laaber, after Ulrich's death in 1465 the castle came to Konrad Marschall von Pappenheim, who sold it in 1473 to the brothers Martin and Ludwig von Wildenstein.

After the Wildensteins died out in the male line in 1583, the lordship was divided among the heirs. One part was then acquired in 1592 by Count Palatine Philipp Ludwig von Neuburg, another by Duke Wilhelm V. of Bavaria. At that time, the castle contained "2 dwellings, a beautiful strong tower and chapels".
Maximilian I reunited the divided lordship and gave it as a gift in 1624 to his victorious general Tzerklaes Count of Tilly. After the Tilly family died out in the male line, the lordship, which had been immediate to the Empire since 1631, came in 1724 to Maria Anna Katharina Countess of Montfort, née Tilly, who was inherited in 1744 by her cousin Ignaz Joseph Baron von Gumppenberg. Elector Karl Theodor of Bavaria bought Breitenegg back from the Gumppenbergs in 1792. However, the lordship itself remained immediate to the Empire and was only connected to Bavaria by personal union. Instead of the former administrative office, a district court was then established here in 1804.

Already under Tilly's rule, the castle had been greatly neglected. The chapel became a lumber room; only the so-called Count's Room with some paintings remained as the administrator's residence. However, after the administrative office was moved to Breitenbrunn in 1733, the castle buildings fell into increasing disrepair, especially when the castle passed into the possession of farmers. By 1844, nothing of the castle chapel was visible anymore.

The ruin lies on a mountain peak projecting eastwards into the Laaber valley, separated from the massif of the hinterland by a wide neck ditch. The curtain wall follows the circumference of the mountain plateau. The original enceinte was probably largely built of ashlar blocks; a small piece of this wall has been preserved in the southeast corner. Otherwise, the wall was completely altered in Gothic and post-Gothic times; mostly rough rubble stone walls have taken its place, partly, however, using the old ashlar blocks. Once, a piece of a Gothic door frame, profiled with a cavetto and pear staff, was walled in. The wall now serves continuously as the back for farmhouses and farm buildings. At the entrance in the southwest corner, there are still some sparse remains of the original curtain wall and the gate passage, apparently similar to Laaber.

In the northwest corner of the enceinte rises the mighty keep made of very carefully worked ashlar blocks, over 8 m square, now approx. 12 m high. Inside, the blocks are smoothly worked. Traces of the entrance are not recognizable; it was therefore still above the current tower height. Layer height of the blocks approx. 0.35 m, wall thickness 2.80 m. The ashlar technique is exactly the same as that of the keep of Laaber Castle or Rosenburg near Riedenburg. Next to the tower is a cistern. To the south extends a low outer fortification, probably only built in the 16th century.