Dornhof Castle

Dornhof Castle is a castle in the municipality of Frauenstein in Carinthia. The listed building was erected in the 15th century.

Near the site of the present Dornhof Castle, there was a castle, now called Altdornhof. It was first mentioned in a document in 1162 and must have been a considerable complex. However, only a few remnants of its walls remain about one kilometer away.

The present massive and castle-like building was originally erected in the late 15th century. In the second half of the 16th century, some renovations and alterations were made to the building. For the year 1560, a Martin (or Daniel) von Staudach was named as the "builder" of the castle, belonging to the widespread noble family of Staudacher in Carinthia, whose roots can be traced back to the 13th century. According to current research, however, it is presumed that Dornhof was already laid out in a simple form in the late 15th century and partly renovated and enlarged in the second half of the 16th century. In 1589, the estate was acquired by the mining brothers Georg and Ehrenreich Megerl (Mägerl), who were elevated to the nobility upon acquisition and from 1607 onwards received the predicate "von und zu Dornhof". In the late 18th century, the castle was temporarily owned by the city of St. Veit. In 1797, it was auctioned and subsequently changed owners frequently. Since 1888, Dornhof Castle has belonged to the farming family Kampl.