Daun Castle

The Daun-Schlössl, also known as Villa Berta, is located at Brunnhausgasse 29 in the Riedenburg district of Salzburg and is one of the listed buildings in the city of Salzburg.

As Gut Weingarten, it was first mentioned in 1139 as being in the possession of the Salzburg Cathedral Chapter. It was originally built as a defensive tower, measuring 13 x 13 meters. This had a large hall on the ground floor with two columns supporting the vaulted ceiling. There may have been an upper floor above it. Cathedral Provost and last Salzburg Counter-Archbishop, Christoph Ebran von Wildenberg, had this tower built in the already existing vineyard in 1480. However, after a dispute with Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg, he had to have this tower demolished again. For the second oldest canon, the Cathedral Chapter had the estate converted into a summer residence in 1529. The chapel was then added during a renewed renovation in the 19th century.

A description from 1761 states that the house contained the following facilities: eight card tables, a shooting range, a billiard room, a bowling alley, and a garden pavilion. Several music stands served for musical entertainment as well as Leopold Mozart's recently published violin school.

The Schlössl received its name from Carl Joseph Graf von Daun, who lived in this house from 1777. He sold it in 1800 to his gardener Karl Hoffmann; later owners included the mayor of Salzburg, Heinrich Ritter von Mertens, and Bertha Fürstin Lobkowitz, to whom the building's second name, Villa Berta, refers.

Villa Berta, today an official residence of the Salzburg State Government (Gswb administration), is still surrounded by buildings of the former nursery and remnants of the former garden.

Archaeological excavations in 2010 and 2011 uncovered remains of the defensive tower, as well as 15 kilograms of ceramic finds and coins, non-ferrous metal fittings, and remnants of stove tiles from the Middle Ages and early modern period.

Image source: www.schloesserrundschau.de