Walchen Old Castle

The remains of Walchen Castle are located in the Walchen district of the municipality of Vöcklamarkt in the Vöcklabruck district of Upper Austria. Only one tower of the former castle remains.

The Walchen lordship and the noble family named after it were first mentioned in a document in 1040. The Walchens were ministeriales of the Kammer lordship. In 1371, "ain hof ze Walhen" was still mentioned as a Schaunberg fief. A Ulrich von Walhen, mentioned in the 1380 enfeoffment book of Duke Albrecht III, was even the administrator of Kammer Castle. According to the enfeoffment book of King Ladislaus Posthumus, in 1456 Hanns der Walch was enfeoffed with the seat at Walchen for himself and his brothers Balthasar, Jörg, and Engelhart. Wolfgang Walch was the administrator of Kogl Castle around 1512. In 1533, Walchen came to Hans Tunser through the marriage of Konrad Walch's daughter Barbara. From them, it passed to his son-in-law Hanns Putz, who was enfeoffed with Walchen in 1550. In 1578, the Putz family was accused of treason, brought to Vienna, imprisoned, and tortured. Hanns Putz died in custody. His son Hieronymus had to sell his property and leave the country after his release. In 1583, he sold Walchen together with Wildenhaag Castle to Hans Christian Geymann (Geumann) zu Gallspach and Tratteneck. The latter had the old and dilapidated castle demolished and built Walchen Palace next to it in 1590.