Frondsberg Castle

It was probably Rudolf von Stadeck who began the construction of the castle. He had received the area around Anger as a fief from the Archbishop of Salzburg. The castle is first mentioned in a document in 1265. In 1287, Heinrich von Stadeck already refers to himself as being from “Vriuntsperg”.

Towards the end of the 13th century, parts of Frondsberg came into the possession of the Losensteiner family. However, the largest part remained with the Stadeckers. They appointed burgraves as administrators. One such was Dieter von Teufenbach-Mayrhofen, who is mentioned in 1371. Towards the end of the 14th century, Frondsberg was again fully owned by the Lords of Stadeck. After the extinction of this family, the lordship fell by inheritance to the Counts of Montfort.

Haug and Ulrich von Montfort were enfeoffed with it by the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1403. Among the administrators appointed by them were again members of the Teufenbach-Mayrhofen family. Hermann Count of Montfort sold Frondsberg in 1470 to Andreas Sarl, the long-time castle administrator. Wolfgang Sarl was the last of his family. His daughter Margarete brought the lordship as a dowry into her marriage with Leopold von Lembach. In 1577, his daughters sold their inheritance to Hans Franz von Neuhaus. He had the castle finally transformed into a Renaissance palace, after previous owners had already made corresponding alterations. However, he had overextended himself financially with the construction project, so that the heavily indebted property was seized by Jakob Schränkel in 1601.

In 1622, Frondsberg was awarded to Anna von Pranckh, who was also one of the largest creditors of Hans Franz von Neuhaus. Her son Wolf Andree von Pranckh sold the castle in 1634 to Heinrich Flach von Schwarzenberg. However, he could not pay the purchase price and sold it in 1642 to Georg Adl von Adlstein. The former administrator of the castle, Blasius Lechner, bought it in 1651 and annexed it to his lordship of Lehenshofen. In 1823, the Imperial Baron Ferdinand von Gudenus acquired the lordship.

The well-preserved castle is still owned by the Gudenus family. The severe war damage from 1945 was already repaired in the post-war period. Frondsberg has hardly changed since the Renaissance period, so that today it is a prime example of a Styrian noble residence, where the medieval ring wall castle was made more comfortable by a Renaissance renovation.