Dachsberg Castle

Dachsberg Castle is located in the Dachsberg district of the municipality of Prambachkirchen in the Eferding district in the Hausruckviertel region of Upper Austria. Since 1921, it has housed the Dachsberg Gymnasium (grammar school).

There are or were two Dachsberg complexes: the older castle, the "Veste Tachsperg," which stood about 200 m below the current castle on a steeply sloping rock outcrop facing the Gallsbach valley, and the current Dachsberg Castle, which was rebuilt after a fire in 1672.

The noble family Daxberger (Dachsberger, spelling varies) is first mentioned around the year 1200. The Dachsbergers were a collateral line of the high-ranking Lords of Prambach and owned their property as a free estate. After the extinction of the main line of the Prambachers, the Dachsbergers had to place themselves under the protection of the Schaunbergers and became their ministerials. Ulricus de Dahsperch, mentioned in 1218, was already a Schaunberg vassal. Over the centuries, the Dachsbergers acquired extensive possessions, mostly located in Lower Austria. In the 14th century, the Dachsbergers had their property administered by burgraves. The burgrave Renwart der Salchendobler inhabited the castle in 1366. In 1315, the chapel in the then-castle of the family was endowed by Friedrich Clingwurm. The last of the Dachsbergers was Jörg von Dachsberg, married to the heiress Wilburg of the last Kapeller and died in Vienna in 1423. During his lifetime, he bequeathed the Dachsberg estate to his great-nephews Kaspar and Gundacker von Starhemberg. Rüdiger von Starhemberg sold Dachsberg in 1463 to his cousin Ulrich von Starhemberg. In 1493, Dachsberg came from Gotthard von Starhemberg as a pledge to Ursula Pernecker († 1547). After her death, the property was initially publicly administered due to emerging inheritance disputes. Then, Dachsberg passed as a dowry of Matthias Pernecker's daughter Elisabeth in 1579 to Wolfgang von Oedt (Oeder). He began the construction of the new Dachsberg Castle, largely using building materials from Dachberg Castle. His son Georg, from his first marriage, inherited Dachsberg from him; he received permission from Archduke Karl in 1570 to include the Pernecker coat of arms in his own. In his second marriage, Matthias Pernecker was married to Susanna von Neuhaus, who bore Matthias Pernecker six daughters.

His daughter Martha Oeder († 1616), who married Georg Schiefer († 1600) from Eferding, received the property as a dowry in 1585. Under the Schiefers, the castle was plundered in 1626 during the Upper Austrian Peasant Uprising. Because of this and a devastating fire in 1672, the castle was rebuilt.

In 1713, Theodosius Freiherr von Schifer sold the property to Count Josef von Manstorff (Mannstorf). In 1775, Johann Baptist Freiherr von Pilati von Tassul inherited the castle from his mother Maria Theresia, née Manstorff, who then called himself zu Daxberg. In 1827, the castle was sold, followed by rapid changes of ownership, which primarily led to the sale of the estate's inventory. Owners to be mentioned are Franz Bernklau (1827), Leopold Ichzentaler (1833), and then the Riederer family (1868-1911). Then Dachsberg was auctioned by the Deutsche Sparkasse in Vienna.

On December 8, 1920, the religious community of St. Francis de Sales became the owner of the castle and the remaining estate. They established a boarding school there. During the turmoil of World War II, the Dachsberg Gymnasium (sometimes also called "Daxberg"), despite resistance from the headmaster Karl Eisenbarth, was temporarily closed by the NS-Stillhaltekommissär (Albert Hoffmann). The reason given was a "dispute" regarding the Counter-Reformation of Ferdinand II and a plea for a Patent of Toleration by Joseph II. In 1945, Dachsberg was shelled and hit by American artillery.