Zelking Castle

The area around Zelking once belonged to the Diocese of Regensburg. Reginbert von Zelking may have been entrusted with the vogtei (advocacy) over the castle by the Regensburg bishops. In the 12th century, Zelking was already a princely fief.

The Lords of Zelking were a princely ministerial family and held the castle for five centuries, first as a Regensburg fief, then as their own free property. In the second half of the 16th century, the castle was converted and modernized into a palace-like structure. The Lords of Zelking died out only in 1634 with Ludwig Wilhelm. The fortress passed through marriage first to the Polheim family of Wartenburg and around 1662 to Andrä Joachim Count Sinzendorf. In 1683, the castle still served as a safe refuge for the surrounding civilian population.

After the Turkish threat was finally averted, the somewhat remote defensive structure, which no longer met the increased living requirements, was abandoned, and the administrative seat was moved to the neighboring Matzleinsdorf. In 1802, Franziska Countess Kinsky, a widowed Countess Sinzendorf, married a Count Harrach in her second marriage, whereby the long-ruinous castle fell to his family. In 1895, it came into the possession of Ludmilla Galgozy-Galantha. However, the castle probably only fell into disrepair towards the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th century. The ruin and the associated forest are still in private ownership today.