Marbach Castle

Marbach Castle is a privately owned castle in Ried in der Riedmark in the Upper Austrian district of Perg.

The castle is three-storied and has a rectangular footprint. At the southwest corner stands the castle chapel, connected to the building, which Carlo Antonio Carlone had built between 1686 and 1689. A painting by Johann Michael Rottmayr from 1704 depicts the beheading of Saint Catherine. Also on the west side, north of the main wing and the castle chapel, extends a two-story arcaded wing, which opens into a transverse utility wing on the north side. The buildings, together with a wall on the east side of the property, form an inner courtyard with an ornamental garden and two fountains on well-maintained lawns.

First documentary mentions date back to 1145. At that time, Eberhardus de Marpach appeared as a witness to a document together with Dietmar von Aist. The last Marpacher was Ulrich de Marpach, who did not return from the crusade in 1217. The then castle fell to the sovereign. Subsequent feudal lords included Ulrich Lichtenegger, Otto Feuchter (from 1382), Rudolf von Wallsee, Sighart Panhalm (from 1398), Wolfgang von Rohrbach (from 1484), Johann Englhofer, and from 1623 to 1873, St. Florian Abbey.

The castle was burned down during the Hussite Wars in the 15th century and later rebuilt as a moated fortress by the Rohrbachers. From 1706 to 1710, a major renovation took place, during which the castle received its current form. Since 1873, the complex has been sold several times and was then a prison of the Garsten correctional facility until 1956. It is now privately owned, was thoroughly renovated along with the castle chapel in the 1970s, is still inhabited, and is therefore generally not accessible to the public. The grounds belonging to the castle are leased, and the farmyard has been abandoned.