Tribuswinkel Castle

Tribuswinkel Castle is a castle in Tribuswinkel, a cadastral community of the market town of Traiskirchen in Lower Austria.

Older structures are likely to have stood on the site of the present castle. The foundation charter of Heiligenkreuz Abbey dates back to 1136. Among others, a witness Jubort de Tribuswinchele is mentioned. The first defensive structure was probably built as a moated castle between 1120 and 1230. The family can also be found in the land register of Klosterneuburg Abbey. It is traceable until the first half of the 14th century. Successors include the Lords of Mistelbach and shortly thereafter Wolfgang von Winden, in whose family it remained until 1527.

After that, the owners changed quite rapidly. Among them were the Starhembergs, the Streun von Schwarzenau, and the Hoyos. In 1588, Georg Federl acquired Tribuswinkel. After converting to Protestantism, he fought the Catholics. Since he confiscated the church properties of the Catholic parish, Archduke Mathias even had to intervene. Federl's daughter-in-law sold the lordship in 1637 to Johann Hector Count Isolani, a general of the feared "Croatian Riders" under Wallenstein. His daughter entered a convent and promptly sold Tribuswinkel to Mathias Wägele.

With an interruption from 1707 to 1733, the Wägele von Walsegg family owned Tribuswinkel between 1666 and 1772. During the Turkish Wars, Tribuswinkel was one of the well-defended refuges for the civilian population. After Maria Anna von Schulenburg-Oyenhausen, née Countess Kotulinsky, who bought the Tribuswinkel estate in 1772, the estate passed to the Bartenstein family. In the mid-19th century, the castle was extensively rebuilt before it was acquired by the Barons Christoph and Johann von Doblhoff in 1877.

In January 1900, Crown Princess Stephanie, widow of Crown Prince Rudolf, visited the Tribuswinkel estate and castle. This visit fueled rumors for some time that the Crown Princess intended to purchase the properties. The news of a completed purchase, reported by most Viennese newspapers, subsequently turned out to be incorrect.

During the First World War (1917), the industrialist Ludwig Urban bought the castle and rebuilt it. A tower that had been demolished around 1800 was rebuilt, and a second floor was added.

After the Second World War, it was confiscated by the Soviet occupation forces. A local headquarters and a film censorship office were established in the castle.

After the State Treaty, it was converted into a children's recreation home in 1958. The widow donated it to the City of Vienna with the condition that it continue to operate as a children's recreation home. In 1988, however, the market town of Traiskirchen, to which Tribuswinkel belongs, bought it and established a cultural center and a kindergarten.