Osterburg Castle

The castle ruin Osterburg is the ruin of a hilltop castle in the cadastral community of the same name in the municipality of Haunoldstein in the district of Sankt Pölten-Land in Lower Austria. The ruin stands on a triangular rock plateau that slopes steeply down to the Pielach gorge to the south. A road leads from Haunoldstein (Pielachhäuser) to the ruin and the farmstead.

A first complex was probably built in the last quarter of the 12th century, the builders are unknown. Around 1200, the Counts of Peilstein owned the castle as a free allodial property. Count Friedrich V of Peilstein died here in 1209. In the second half of the 13th century, the castle was inhabited by followers of the Häusler family. They named themselves after the Osterburg. This had meanwhile become a princely fief. Through marriage, it passed from the Häuslers to Konrad Eisenbeutel at the beginning of the 14th century. The Tursen von Tiernstein inherited the property around the middle of the 14th century. According to a former inscription above the door of the palas, Rudolf Turso von Tiernstein had the castle expanded in 1405. In 1489, the Prüschenk brothers took over the lordship. In 1514, Emperor Maximilian I enfeoffed Knight Hans Geyer, whose family had only moved from Franconia in 1482, with the castle. The castle was modernized and the Geyers acquired a regional court from the sovereign in 1584. The Protestant branches of the Geyer family had to leave the country after the Battle of White Mountain. The line that remained Catholic was elevated to the baronial status in 1650 and was allowed to call itself Geyer von Geyersperg auf Osterburg. However, this line soon became heavily indebted and was sold only two years later to Georg Wertemann Freiherr von Wertema. He passed it on to Horatius Buccellini Freiherr von Reichenberg as early as 1653. Finally, Count Raimund Montecuccoli, who owned the neighboring Hohenegg Castle, bought the property in 1668. From 1675, he owned it as a free allodial property. Administration was concentrated in Hohenegg and later in Mitterau, and consequently Osterburg was abandoned and fell into disrepair. In 1766, Zeno Graf Montecuccoli had the medieval fortifications and part of the residential buildings demolished. The material was used for the expansion of Mitterau Castle. The remaining ruin belonged to the Montecuccoli family until 1983. After that, it passed into private ownership, and from 1985 it was made habitable again and partially renovated.