Staudachhof Castle

Staudachhof Castle (also Gut Weilern) is a listed building in the hamlet of the same name in the Metnitz Valley in Carinthia, which today belongs to the municipality of Friesach.

Staudach means thicket or brushwood, but the original name of the group of houses in the Metnitz Valley was "Weiler(n)" and was first mentioned in a document in 1107 as Wilar, when Acica, the widow of Margrave Burkhard of Istria, gave this place to her daughter. Soon after, the property passed to the Counts of Spanheim, who then donated it to St. Lambrecht Abbey. Their followers, who managed the estate, called themselves Lords of Wilaren (documented in 1136 and 1251). From 1315, the Gurk ministerialis Hermann von Staudach was the owner of the locality, which received its current name from his family. The Staudachers had a lizard in their coat of arms; a coat of arms stone of Andrä Staudach is in the church in the neighboring village of Grades, and one of Marx von Staudach from 1544 is in the Dominican Church in Friesach. The castle was acquired in 1596 by the Murau industrialist Christoph Schmelzer. The Schmelzers were followed by the Aichelburgers as owners; from 1786 onwards, the owners changed rapidly. In 1856, Count Gustav von Egger was the lord of the castle; in 1869, Staudachhof belonged to the Hüttenberg Ironworks Company. Afterwards, it passed into agricultural ownership, where the property still remains today.