Aichberg Castle

Aichberg Castle is a former castle in the village of Aichberg, municipality of Waldkirchen am Wesen in Upper Austria. Since the main tower was demolished in 1940, the castle is barely recognizable as such and now serves as a farm (Schlossbauer).

Aichberg is first mentioned in a document in 1140; its builders and owners at the time were the knight Heinrich von Aichberg, who served the Lords of Wesen. After the extinction of the Lords of Weser, their successor Hadmar von Waldeck bequeathed Wesen Castle with all its serfs to the Diocese of Passau. As a result, Ulrich von Aichberg, initially an unfree vassal of the Weseners, became a Passau ministerialis in 1325. The neighboring Oeder, also ministeriales of the Passau bishop, came into possession of Aichberg Castle in 1446. The Aichbergers died out in 1455. From 1572 to 1844, the castle was owned by the Counts of Salburg, who to this day own the nearby Altenhof Castle, located across the Danube. The Salburgs remained in possession of Aichberg until 1814 and converted the former moated castle into a palace. Maria Angelika Countess Salburg, who had married Count Ludwig von Sprinzenstein, received the property as a wedding gift. After the death of her husband, she sold Aichberg in 1844 to Count Albert von Saint Julien. In 1848, when serfdom was abolished and the income from the estate was significantly reduced, he sold it to a Josef Reischauer. Thereafter, there was a rapid change of ownership. In the 1920s, the innkeeper Fischer had the castle, which had fallen almost into ruin, renovated without regard for its historical substance. Today, the property is a stately farm (Schlossbauer) owned by the Wildauer family.