To be privately owned
CastleSankt Stefan im Gailtal-Bichlhof
Bichlhof Castle
Bichlhof Castle is a listed building in the hamlet of the same name in the municipality of St. Stefan im Gailtal in Carinthia.
The Bichlhof, formerly also called Aichbichl, is a manor-like noble seat situated on a plateau above the Gailtal valley. The building may have originated as early as around 1600, but in its current form, the two-story structure with a hipped roof and 5:3 window axes was built in the 18th century, its exterior shaped by a renovation around 1800. The entrance gate in the middle of the main facade is round-arched, with twin windows above it. The other windows have ear frames. The corners of the building have a plastered cladding of alternating convex and concave ashlar blocks. The vestibule has a cross-rib vault. West of the main building is a chapel, an almost square building with a gabled roof.
History of Ownership+
According to tradition, the estate is said to have fallen to one of the sons of the industrialist Maximilian Christoph Viertaler, the founder of the noble family Aichelburg, in the first half of the 16th century. However, the first documented mention of the castle dates only from 1660, when it was owned by a Ferencz Gregoritsch. After several changes of ownership, it became the ancestral seat of the Barons of Aichelburg-Bichelhof, in whose possession it remained until 1929. Via Otto Kharassnig and Blasius Leiler, who each owned the Bichlhof for only a few years, the estate finally came into the possession of the Graz family Werner Riekh in 1941.
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Source: Wikipedia · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image: Niki.L / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This description draws on the facts documented in the linked Wikipedia article; Wikipedia content is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wording and editing: Mobile History.
Location: 46.6126, 13.5441