Wiesenau Castle

The origins of Wiesenau Castle date back to 1579, when it was built by Siegmund Pain, a local entrepreneur. After his lineage died out in 1652, the estate passed into the possession of the Barons of Siegersdorf-Kirchheimegg in 1648, who held it until 1778. In 1814, Johann Soellner, the director of the Wolfsberg white lead factory, acquired the castle. Under his patronage, Wiesenau developed into an intellectual center, known as the “Wiesenau Circle,” which maintained connections with Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Schiller. A frequent guest was the imperial court astronomer Tobias Bürg, who later retired entirely to Wiesenau. The castle passed to the Counts Henckel von Donnersmarck in 1847 and to the Hespa-Domäne in 1923, before coming into the possession of RZ Holzindustrie GmbH in 2007.