Aistersheim Castle

Aistersheim Castle is a late Renaissance moated castle in the center of Aistersheim in Upper Austria, approximately 12 km southwest of Grieskirchen.

The moated castle was first mentioned in a document in 1159 with Dietmar von Aistersheim, a ministerialis of the Styrian Otakars. The castle at that time remained in the possession of the Lords of Aistersheim until 1426, when Heinrich von Aistersheim, the last of his line, died. Its members also called themselves Lords of Aist, after their ancestral seat near Altaist in the Mühlviertel. The castle was a fortification on the border with Bavaria, which at that time ran near Haag am Hausruck. In 1464, Hanns von Hohenfeld bought the lordship. Aistersheim then remained with this family for over 350 years. Hanns von Hohenfeld had owned the medieval moated castle for less than seven years when it was shelled, conquered, and destroyed in the Liechtenstein Feud by the modern gunpowder artillery of Wolfgang von Schaunberg. Hohenfelder then had to be compensated with Jochenstein Castle. Aistersheim was hastily repaired, but then replaced by a new building in the second half of the 16th century. The most important builder of the late Renaissance castle that still exists today was probably the knightly representative Achaz von Hohenfeld. Construction was completed around 1600. Meanwhile, the Hohenfelds had converted to Protestantism. In 1619, Otto Achaz von Hohenfeld, as a militant representative of the Protestant estates, refused to pay homage to Emperor Ferdinand II as the new sovereign. As a result, Tilly's Bavarian troops besieged the castle the following year, which was defended by peasants under the steward Wolf Kessel. After a few days, it was captured. Kessel paid for his resistance with his head, and most of the peasants were hanged.

During the great Upper Austrian Peasant War under Stefan Fadinger, Aistersheim became one of the centers of peasant resistance. After Fadinger's death, it served Achaz Wiellinger von der Au as a headquarters and loot depot. At that time, the manorial archive was destroyed. During the subsequent conquest by the Bavarian governor in Upper Austria, Adam Graf Herberstorff, the building was severely damaged. Afterwards, dozens of peasants were hanged from the trees. The Hohenfelds eventually converted back to Catholicism. Their knightly status was confirmed, and Ferdinand von Hohenfeld was elevated to the status of Imperial Count in 1669. A fire in 1771 caused considerable damage, necessitating several baroque-style renovations. In the first half of the 19th century, the exterior facades were renewed. The family died out in 1824 with Field Marshal Lieutenant Otto Adolf Graf Hohenfeld. His four sisters sold the lordship in 1830 to Johann Karl Dworzak. His descendants owned Aistersheim until the second half of the 20th century.

In Worms Cathedral, there is an elaborate epitaph of Cathedral Dean Franz Carl Friedrich von Hohenfeld (1696-1757) which, according to the tomb inscription, identifies him as Lord of Aistersheim.