Haiding Castle

Haiding Castle is a former moated castle in the village of Haiding in the municipality of Krenglbach in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. It was first mentioned in a document in 1340.

The Knights of Gelting had settled in Haiding around 1312 and built a fortified moated castle here. The Schaunberger, who claimed this area for themselves, took the castle, burned it down, and forced the Geltings to declare that they would never rebuild Haiding as a castle. After the Schaunberger were defeated by the Habsburgs, Ulrich Geltinger received Haiding in 1386 as a princely fief. After the extinction of this family, a Hostorffer - presumably as a princely administrator - received the estate. It is unknown how the property came into the possession of the Rondinelli; in any case, a Hans Sigmund Rondinelli sold the seat of Haiding to Count Engelbert Katzianer; as late as 1674, a Sigmund Ferdinand Katzianer resided on the property, which had grown into a castle. In 1727, the castle appears in the possession of Count Wilhelm Strattmann. He had bought the castle from the Katzianer family and added it to his entailed estate of the Peuerbach dominion. Until the abolition of the entailed estate in 1825, Haiding belonged to the Strattmann-Batthyany properties. After a division of property, Haiding came to Prince Philipp Batthyany. In 1879, Prince Wilhelm Alfred Montenuovo, who was married to Juliane Batthyany, inherited the castle. Three years later, the prince sold the uninhabited castle to Hans and Maria Pauler, who used it as a farm. At the beginning of the 20th century, the castle was left to decay. It was not until 1970 that it was renovated by the master builder and penultimate owner Friedrich Achleitner and now by his son, and made accessible to the public. The building is a protected monument.