Arndorf Castle

Arndorf Castle is a listed property in the Lower Austrian municipality of Pöggstall. It features a Gothic core and has been redesigned and extended several times over the years.

In a document from 1321, Arndorf is first mentioned as a lightly fortified manor. The minor nobleman Otto von Aer(i)ndorf held it at that time as a fief of the Mollenburg lordship. At this time, the manor essentially consisted of a three-story box-shaped building, protected by a rampart and moat system.

After the Aerndorfers died out, the fief was owned by the Schauchinger family between 1482 and 1534. Under their rule, the Gothic building was extended and transformed into a Renaissance castle. In 1534, it passed to the Kornfail family, who maintained a Protestant preacher at the castle. In 1586, the feudal lords of Mollenburg sold the castle to Johann Jöppl.

In the following two centuries, there were frequent changes of ownership. Johann von Stiebar took over the estate in 1791 and attached it to his Artstetten lordship, which in turn was acquired by Emperor Franz von Habsburg in 1823. The Habsburgs sold the castle in 1870, and another period of multiple changes of ownership followed. From 1918–1976, it was owned by the Federal Forests, who apparently had no interest in its preservation and allowed the castle to increasingly fall into disrepair. Since 1976, it has been in private ownership and has since been used for agriculture, maintained, and partially renovated.