Harmannsdorf Castle

Facade

The simple facades with giant pilaster articulation and fluted sills in the upper-floor windows were designed in the early 17th century and supplemented around 1750 with stucco decoration featuring garlands and volute bands above the lintel and in the parapets, crowned with shells. On the west side, the complex is accessible through a round-arched entrance portal, whose wider central axis with a side pedestrian door in rusticated framing dates from the early 17th century. In the spandrels of the portal are the rollers of a former drawbridge. A barrel-vaulted bridge with stone balustrades and flanking reclining lion figures from the third quarter of the 18th century leads over the moat to the portal. A segment-arched projecting balcony with an openwork stone grille rests on stone volutes to the sides of the portal. Putto figures stand on vases on the side pedestals. The east facade is designed as a scenic showpiece. The central axis of the upper floor has a pilaster-framed shell niche, containing a large vase entwined with garlands, and above it a segment-arched, profiled gable with a relief coat of arms of the Lords of Moser from around 1760.

Outdoor Area

From the terraced park, a monumental show staircase leads in three sections over the moat and widens into a projecting altana with a stone balustrade. The staircase itself features wrought-iron grilles between pedestals, on which richly decorated, alternating pairs of ornate vases stand. Banded pillars with vase finials and flanking balustrades line the staircase. Following the axis of the staircase, a continuous park axis extends to the east with an avenue lined with Rococo vases and prismatic pedestals with volutes. The partly flamed, mighty vases along the park avenue are decorated with garlands, fruits, and rocaille. The avenue leads to a three-part garden portal with banded, pilaster-articulated pillars with mask vases and rich wrought-iron grilles from around 1730. Through this gate, one entered the large, formerly hedge-lined garden parterre, which was called the tournament court. In the hedges stood 12 life-size statues made of Zogelsdorf sandstone, and the passages were flanked by busts of generals standing on high curved pedestals. In the center of the parterre was a fountain adorned with a water-spouting fish and a putto. The fountain was destroyed by the Russians as early as 1945 when they converted the parterre into a football field. The statues and busts were excellent stonework, worthy of an imperial garden. Daniel Freiherr von Moser created this garden from about 1740 to 1760. He was also the owner of the Zogelsdorf estate and the associated sandstone quarries. (Zogelsdorf Castle and estate belonged to the Harmannsdorf dominion until 1936.) The French garden of Harmannsdorf was one of the most important late Baroque garden complexes in Austria. In 1964, statues and busts were sold; they are now in Neuaigen Castle. After the hedges were later cleared, the parterre area is now just a large meadow, and there are no longer any statues or busts in the park. In the eastern wall of the park, formerly divided by parterres, the complex is accessible through garden portals. The old B4 village exit (near the warehouse silo) was flanked by statues of St. Florian and St. Donatus, around 1725; they were moved to Maissau in 1964.

The moat wall is dated 1764. On the west side, it has curved pedestals and life-size stone figures with allegorical representations of the months, mythological figures, and busts to the north and south from around 1760. From the same period are the sandstone sculptures of Saints Joseph and John of Nepomuk on curved pedestals, standing opposite the castle portal. The enclosing wall is broken by entrance portals. The southern portal, in rusticated framing between stepped pilasters and a curved gable, was built in the 18th century and bears a double-headed eagle relief coat of arms from the first half of the 17th century. The northern portal, leading to the Meierhof, is round-arched, rusticated, and has a curved gable with a double-headed eagle relief in the keystone from around 1627. On the outer park wall, corner rondels from around 1760 rise, with mansard cone roofs and basket-arch windows. The portals on the east and north sides have rusticated pillars, putto finials, and wrought-iron grilles.

Courtyard

The inner courtyard has walled-up arcade arches on the west side with a cross-rib vaulted corridor on the upper floor. To the north and east, there is a balcony with consoles and a sandstone slab. Some of the windows feature profiled pediments and shell decoration. The courtyard is accessible on the ground floor through stone-framed doors from the early 17th century. A quarter-round Renaissance fountain with a stone surround is built into the northeast corner. An emperor's bust from the first half of the 18th century rises on a curved pedestal inside the courtyard.

Keep

In the 13th century, the mighty Romanesque keep, now integrated into the building, with a square floor plan, was known as "Höllturm" (Hell Tower). From the chapel, a staircase, now partly collapsed, leads up in the tower wall. Access to this was walled up. Its distinctive plateau with rectangular battlements was added in 1866. The tower has rectangular embrasure windows and, in the upper zone, Baroque, round-arched sound windows for a bell by Heinrich Kohl from 1869. For the installation of a staircase, the north side was broken open in 1910. The younger tower portal was moved here from the granary. It is framed by herms and has figures lying on a multi-curved pediment above. To the east of it is the older, round-arched Romanesque tower portal.

The interior rooms are mostly cross-rib vaulted. In the wall of the upper floor, parts of a Gothic staircase with a stone balustrade, presumably added in the 17th century, are preserved. The cellar rooms date from around 1600 and are barrel-vaulted. On the south side, medieval building parts and a former entrance are preserved, adjoining the tower. The western entrance and partly the rooms on the ground floor have barrel and cross-rib vaults. Rooms with ceiling stucco, as well as tendril and strapwork and profiled cornices, are found primarily on the upper floor. A spiral staircase was installed in the west wing in the 17th century.

The castle chapel is located on the upper floor of the keep. It is a cross-rib vaulted room with an apse niche on the east side. The chapel portal has corner pilasters, a broken round-arched gable with a relief coat of arms of the Moser family between putti, and a Baroque door leaf from around 1745. The window of the oratory to the south has rich, partly gilded strapwork stucco in the vault from the mid-18th century with depictions of the Trinity and putti pulling back a curtain. Only remnants of an altar built around 1720 remain. The apse niche is adorned with heavily restored 18th-century wall paintings. They are attributed to pupils of Paul Troger. (Troger created his famous dome frescoes in Altenburg Abbey during this period.)

In the southeast of the park stands a former granary from the 17th century (exterior renovation 2008 - 2009). The three-story building with corner rustication, rectangular windows, and round-arched dormer windows on the gable sides is crowned by a three-story, high volute gable with figures of the Greek Demeter and Saint Florian (reproduction from 2009 of the original destroyed by lightning in the 1950s). The low, gable-end extensions with vase finials and basket-arch portal were added in the mid-18th century. The Baroque garden hall was converted into a castle theater around 1800. The interior features secco paintings with illusionistic landscape depictions from this period. The theme of the paintings is "The Triumph of Nature over Art," presumably influenced by Freemasonry. For this, the Baroque stucco was previously removed. Before the restoration of the paintings, 2006 - 2007, outlines of the stucco could be seen in a crumbled area of the ceiling. A former glass and palm house on the north side of the former large garden parterre dates from the third third of the 18th century.

North of the castle lies a four-winged, single-story Meierhof (manor farm), remodeled in the first half of the 19th century, which was built around 1612. Next to it is a two-story forestry and administration building with late historicist facade elements and a courtyard-side staircase with a balcony. The stables located west of the castle, from the mid-19th century, consist of long, gable-end wings with horse and cattle busts in medallions above gable-side, coupled round-arched windows.