Wasserleith Castle

The pretty Baroque castle Wasserleith is located at the mouth of the narrow Feistritzgraben into the high plateau of St. Marein bei Knittelfeld. In the 13th century, a farm belonging to Seckau Abbey was located here, which was leased to the Prankh family. In the 14th century, they established a larger hammer mill here, which was in operation until 1910 and most recently primarily produced scythes. Next to the hammer mill was a small fortified building, but by 1425 it was already referred to only as a castle ruin. In 1463, the iron hammer with the farm was owned by the industrialist family Pengg. In 1737, the complex was taken over by the Zeilinger family. They built the present castle on the site of the farm, incorporating the existing building fabric. The subsequent owners until the cessation of operations were also hammer lords. In 1816, the Weinmeister family made major changes. After the Second World War, Baron Camillo Thalhammer lived here, who had taken over Wasserleith from Baroness Olga von Lenzendorf. Afterwards, Wasserleith belonged to the Skaper and Langenkamp families. The building complex is now owned by the Obersteirische Wohnstättengenossenschaft. It has been excellently renovated and supplemented with extensions. Caritas of the Diocese of Graz-Seckau operates a modern senior and nursing home here.

The industrialist's castle is a well-maintained two-story L-shaped building. On the long side of the larger building, a bell or clock tower protrudes significantly from the facade. It is covered with a Baroque dome. The ground floor of the front facade is resolved into two large arches, behind which lies a loggia. Between the two gable windows is a large, but already heavily weathered wall painting. It depicts two men carrying a huge bunch of grapes. The outer wall of the shorter wing is also decorated with two frescoes, whose themes are now difficult to recognize. A modern glass structure has been added to this wing in recent years, leading to an equally modern residential wing of the retirement home. The windows of the upper floor of the two building wings partly have straight pediments. The wide cornice, which visually separated the ground floor from the upper floor, is only partially preserved. On the surrounding wall is a two-story garden pavilion in great need of renovation. Towards the garden, it features three-axis pillar arcades on both floors. The wrought-iron balustrade railing on the upper floor shows the year 1834.