Weikersdorf Castle

Weikersdorf Castle is a former castle and now a castle hotel in Baden in Lower Austria.

When the castle was built is not known. The Lords of Weikersdorf were first mentioned in documents in 1233. In 1450, a Hans Hager is mentioned as Lord of Weikersdorf am Anger.

The castle was also owned by Matthias Corvinus. After his death, it fell to the Emperor, who in turn assigned it to his forest master Kallenberg. After the two Turkish sieges in 1529 and 1683, the castle changed hands several times, being converted into a Renaissance-style castle after the First Turkish Siege.

During the Second Siege, all manorial records were destroyed, so in 1705, Franz Quarient created new land registers, which today represent an important historical source.

The castle was owned by the Doblhoff family from 1741 to 1966 – with Heinrich (III.) von Doblhoff-Dier (1894–1983) as the last lord of the castle. In 1945, the castle was ravaged by the Soviet army. With mine detectors, a walled-in church treasure was found, which must have been hidden in 1683.

After the occupation, the castle threatened to fall into disrepair, so it, including the park (a total of approx. 30,000 m²), was acquired by the municipality of Baden on June 30, 1966 (for five million Schilling) – which resold the properties to the industrialist Wilhelm Papst on March 9, 1973. On his initiative (supported by his wife Lotte), the castle was renovated (architect: Herbert Ortner sen.) and expanded into a castle hotel. The hotel went into operation on September 1, 1975, and on February 18, 1976, it was opened as a club hotel by Federal Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry, Josef Staribacher, and Governor Andreas Maurer. After the bankruptcy of entrepreneur Papst in 1990, Austria-Hotel-AG took over the club hotel on January 1, 1992.

Recent supra-regional attention was also given to the Hotel Schloss Weikersdorf due to Euro 2008, when the Italian national football team took up quarters here.