Prison
CastleSonnberg
Sonnberg Castle
The former Sonnberg Castle – a four-sided, uniform moated castle of the late Renaissance – is located southwest of the village of Sonnberg, in the western Weinviertel in Lower Austria, in a depression of the Göllersbach stream.
The building is a protected monument by decree of the Federal Monuments Office and is used as an administrative building for the Sonnberg Correctional Facility.
Until 1596
In 1177, a castle called Sunnenberg was first mentioned in a document, located slightly above the current complex. Since 1066, the name of a family, named after this seat, has been traceable in the area. At the time of the first documented mention of the castle, a Liutwin de Sunnberg is named. He was a feudal lord of the Margraves of Cham-Vohburg, who colonized this part of the Weinviertel. The castle dated from the 11th century and was part of a defensive chain along the Göllersbach. Its task was to secure the trade route to Bohemia and Moravia. In 1231, the castle was destroyed by Duke Frederick II during the conflicts with the Kuenringers, because the Sonnbergers had supported the Kuenringers, to whom they were related.
After the end of the hostilities, the Sonnbergers built a moated castle on the banks of the Göllersbach and, in the following years, established a large manorial estate with properties in the surrounding area and possessions in Asparn an der Zaya and Schauenstein am Kamp. The Sonnberger family had become so powerful in the late 13th century that they could support Duke Albrecht in the Güssing Feud with 70 armed men.
In the following years, the Sonnbergers fell into economic difficulties, and the wealthy Tursen von Rauheneck systematically bought up the Sonnbergers' estates, but in 1377 sold half of the lordship and in 1386 the second half to Kadolt the Elder of Eckartsau. The Sonnberger family died out in 1400 with the death of Vivianz, the last Sonnberger.
Over the next 200 years, the lordship changed hands several times. The last Eckartsauer was Jörg von Eckartsau, from whom the property, after a temporary division, passed to one of his sons-in-law, Christoph von Rohr. Since he also died without heirs in 1516, the lordship passed through Christoph Freiherr von Ludmannsdorf in 1523 to the lord of Judenau Castle, Hans Wolfgang Matsebner.
In 1559, after Matsebner's death, Christoph von Rueber took over the dilapidated lordship and significantly improved its financial situation in the following years. He expanded and refurnished the castle. After a will contest and several court rulings following appeals, the property was finally awarded to the brothers Wolf Georg and Hans von Gilleis in 1565, and the other heirs were paid out by 1574.
Wolf Georg von Gilleis was appointed Baron in 1579 and served Emperor Rudolf II as Lord High Steward.
from 1596
Wolf Georg Freiherr von Gilleis had the moated castle expanded into a four-wing building in the late Renaissance style around 1600. It thus acquired its present appearance and is inscribed with the year 1596.
Under the Protestant Gilleis, Hollabrunn developed into a center for cattle and wine trade. It was not until 1620 that Ernst Wolfgang Freiherr von Gilleis converted to Catholicism, which allowed him to retain the lordship. During the Thirty Years' War, Sonnberg was first conquered by Count Matthias von Thurn and in 1645 by the Swedes. An economic collapse followed. Isabella von Gilleis sold the dilapidated property in 1663 to Gundaker Graf Dietrichstein.
Count Dietrichstein was a minister, diplomat, and Lord High Master of the Horse under Emperor Leopold I and was elevated to the rank of Imperial Prince in 1684. Under the Dietrichsteins, Sonnberg served as the administrative seat for their estates of Groß (Hollabrunn municipality), Merkenstein, Spitz, Schwallenbach, Arbesbach, and Sitzendorf.
Sonnberg remained in the possession of the Dietrichstein family until 1864, when the lordship was sold to Carl Graf Schönborn-Puchheim, who adapted the castle. Since he himself resided in the nearby Göllersdorf Castle (now a correctional facility), he rented out the castle.
Princess Friederike zu Lippe-Biesterfeld, née Countess Schönborn, sold the property in 1934 to Archduke Anton Habsburg-Lothringen, who lived there with his wife Ileana. As an enthusiastic aviator, he had a private airfield built next to the castle. During World War II, Anton Habsburg-Lothringen served in the German Wehrmacht as an aviator until the end of 1944 and, unlike almost all other members of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen, was a supporter of National Socialism. This led to the castle being used as a military hospital during World War II and being completely devastated by soldiers of the Soviet occupation forces after the war.
After the withdrawal of the occupation soldiers in 1955, Sonnberg Castle was sold by the Archduke to the judicial administration of the Republic of Austria, which established a modern correctional facility on the site.
The castle itself serves as the administrative building of the institution and was restored in 1963/65 and 1971/73.
Architectural Description+
The castle is located amidst the security facilities of the correctional facility behind high enclosing walls and is barely visible from the outside. The castle entrance is flanked by two square gatehouses from the end of the 17th century, which, like the castle, are listed as historical monuments. They are two-story symmetrically arranged block buildings with hip roofs, connected by gate pillars crowned with spheres.
Behind it lies the 800-meter-long enclosing wall of the correctional facility with its security installations (person and vehicle lock) followed by a bridge over the moat of the former castle with a statue of St. John of Nepomuk, which forms the access to the castle grounds.
The three-story, almost square four-wing castle building with rusticated window frames is covered by brick hip roofs. Renovations from the Renaissance (1560/63) and Baroque periods (1730/35) determine its current appearance.
In the west wing, a gate tower, raised by a fourth story and over 17 meters high, rises. Above a concluding viewing terrace with balustrades, it is crowned by an octagonal upper story with a massive bell-shaped dome and a final lantern. The masonry of the tower still dates back to the keep of the former moated castle from the 13th century. In the axis of the tower, there is a round-arched pilaster portal with a concluding triglyph frieze. The frieze bears the coat of arms of the Gilleis and is marked with "1596". Above the window on the first floor, there is a cartouche with the Schönborn coat of arms.
The south front is dominated by a former balcony, which was built over in the 18th century with a late Baroque open staircase with vase finials. On the first floor, there is an architraved hall portal with a triangular broken pediment from the 17th century and an inserted coat of arms cartouche of the Princes Dietrichstein from around 1690.
In front of the south facade of the castle extends a Baroque garden with some Baroque stone sculptures.
The courtyard, enclosed in the 17th century, originally featured open arcaded walkways on all floors on the east and west sides, which were walled up at the end of the 17th century. The hall windows on the first floor of the southern courtyard facade have richer frames than the other windows. Here, too, there is a Dietrichstein coat of arms cartouche dated 1690. In a niche of the western courtyard facade, a late Baroque bust of Caesar stands on a pedestal.
Interior+
The interior rooms are frequently covered by barrel vaults with lunettes and groin vaults from around 1600. The castle's furnishings are largely limited to fixed elements, as the inventory was completely plundered after 1945.
In a late Baroque salon in the southern wing, an oval central painting is preserved on a coved flat ceiling with foliage stucco from around 1700, depicting Diana and Actaeon, as well as flower still lifes in the corner medallions. In the stuccoed window reveals are medallions with hunting still lifes, and stucco frames indicate former wall paintings. The carved portals of this salon have supraports with still lifes from the third quarter of the 18th century. A late Baroque marble fireplace complements the furnishings.
A hall in this wing is equipped with a coffered Renaissance wooden ceiling and a similar stone fireplace with caryatids.
In the eastern wing of the building, there is another late Baroque salon with strapwork stucco on the flat ceiling and an oven in a niche from around 1730/40.
In a hall of the western wing, there is a later whitewashed coffered ceiling decorated with angel heads, as well as two richly ornamented wooden portals from the early 17th century.
In another room, a tall tiled stove from the Baroque period is preserved.
In the center of the inner courtyard is a capital-shaped Renaissance fountain basin with Gothicizing blind arches and coats of arms, probably from the 16th century.
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Source: Wikipedia · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schloss_Sonnberg_Westfassade1.jpg
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: 48.5385, 16.0615