Kellerberg Castle

The predecessor building of the castle, which was destroyed by the great earthquake of 1348 and never rebuilt, was first mentioned in a document in 1251. It was not located on the site of the present castle, but further south in an elevated position. From 1272, the Ortenburgs were enfeoffed with the Lordship of Kellerberg and it served as their ministerial seat and namesake ("de Chelerperch"). Via the Counts of Cilli, who came into possession of the castle after the extinction of the Ortenburgs in 1418, the lordship passed to Emperor Frederick III in 1456. His son, Maximilian I, first granted Kellerberg as a fief to Sigmund von Dietrichstein in 1514. Soon, however, it passed into his full ownership (allod). In 1527, the castle was enfeoffed by Sigmund to Christoph Keller von Kellerberg, whose family remained the feudal tenants until their extinction at the end of the 18th century. However, the feudal lords changed in 1592 when the Khevenhüller family bought the Lordship of Paternion, to which Kellerberg also belonged. In 1782, the lordship passed to Johann Widmann. Since 1894, the castle has been owned by the Rothauer family. The current Kellerberg Castle is a massive, three-story building with two diagonally placed round towers, built at the beginning of the 16th century. The cubic, rectangular residential building, covered by a hipped roof, has no inner courtyard. The round towers are topped with a conical roof. On the east front there is a round-arched portal, on the side of which there is a memorial stone with the Dietrichstein coat of arms from 1548. The interiors are adorned with stucco ceilings. A tiled stove with figural representations dates from the end of the 17th century.