Martinsberg Castle

Martinsberg Castle was first mentioned in a document in 1290, when Heinrich von Aufenstein enfeoffed Ludwig von "sant Marteinsberg bei Zierlen". Soon after, Martinsberg became a princely domain. The castle, which controlled the road through the Inn Valley and a ferry across the river, was administered by stewards.

When Countess Margarete Maultasch handed over to her cousin Rudolf IV of Habsburg in 1363, she retained Martinsberg along with three other estates. Later, the Habsburgs granted the estates at Martinsberg to the Lords of Mentlberg, who held the fief until their extinction in 1537. In the 15th century, the castle was granted as a fief by Archduke Sigmund to Ulrich Ramung.

In 1481, Archduke Sigmund took back the castle and gave it to Ulrich Kneusl. He had the estate expanded but sold it as early as 1497 to King Maximilian I. The latter used Martinsberg as a hunting lodge. In 1546, the Tyroleans were able to stop the invasion of the Schmalkaldic troops because they had entrenched the narrow mountain road passing by the castle. Also in 1703 during the "Bavarian Tumult" and in 1809 during the Napoleonic Wars, the narrow road was used militarily. By these times, however, the Martinsberg estate had long been in peasant hands, as the Tyrolean provincial government had sold it in 1647.

In 1886, the Innsbruck merchant Alois Hepperger acquired the complex, but sold it just two years later to the Catholic Association of Friends of Children in Salzburg. In 1940, the Benedictines were dispossessed, and the palas was first used as a home for South Tyrolean emigrants and then as a prisoner-of-war camp. The current owner is the Salzburg Archabbey of St. Peter, which operates a special school in the neighboring modern outbuildings.