Gartenau Castle

Gartenau Castle is located in Hallein, the district capital of Tennengau. The name Gartenau goes back to a farm "Kattenowe", also "Gatenau" from the 13th and 14th centuries. Gartenau Castle is situated on the southwestern slope of the foothills of the Göll massif above the Königsseeache in the cadastral community of Taxach.

As early as 1339, Gartenau, then still under the name "Grafengaden", was mentioned as an estate and around 1400 was converted into a manor by Rudolf Trauner, the administrator of Glanegg. The builders were the Counts of Sulzbach, who came from the Upper Palatinate in Bavaria and are also known as the founders of Berchtesgaden Provostry. Around 1430, the Scheller family of ship owners from Laufen, who had become rich through the salt trade, acquired the castle and called themselves "Scheller von Gartenau". In the 16th century, Jakob Belasi, a brother of the then Archbishop of Salzburg Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi, built the southern wing of the castle. The northern wing was built around 1800. After the land reform in 1848, Evelyn Freiin von Hammer-Purgstall bought the property. Her husband Adolf von Berndt began cement production, which has been operated by the family and Zementwerk Leube GmbH since 1864.

In the elongated, rectangular castle, fresco remnants of the previous building are preserved on the first floor. Both in the castle and in the large castle chapel, late Gothic details can still be found.

The castle is privately owned and cannot be visited.