Tannenmühle Castle

Tannenmühle is a castle in the Lower Austrian municipality of Neustift-Innermanzing.

Tannenmühle was presumably founded by Philipp Tanner, who also left feudal property at Leiten near Strass in 1455; an old cadastral designation also refers to it as "Donnermühle". From 1591, the building was owned by the Neulengbach dominion; later, the miller Johann Asinger was also mentioned. In 1862, it was purchased by Viktor Graf Lützow, who had a manor house built next to the mill and expanded the estate by repeatedly acquiring surrounding properties. Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy bought the estate and the lands in 1871; he had the mill demolished, the manor house extensively rebuilt, and the park expanded. He had the castle and the surrounding garden designed to resemble British country estates, possibly as a memorial to his early deceased wife Sarah, who was from England. In 1872, the Englishman Robert Bulwer-Lytton, who had published poems under a pseudonym and served the English crown as a diplomat and later as Viceroy of India, resided on the estate. His father Edward had published the novel "The Last Days of Pompeii". After the death of Prince Esterhazy in 1894, the castle was sold by his son Anton to the widowed Princess Theresia Sulkowski, who sold it a few years later to Baroness Paula Scharschmid. From 1907, the French Count Resseguier de Miremont, and from 1920, Franz Graf Clam Gallas, were owners of the estate. In the last days of World War II, the building was plundered and then used as a maternity home. This use was only temporary; subsequently, the estate was restored by the Plaß family. Afterwards, Adolf Graf Trauttmansdorff was the owner of the country estate, which is now owned and used by the von Blaas family.