Kirchberg Castle

Around the middle of the 12th century, the Lords of Kuenring erected the small castle. One of their vassals was enfeoffed with its administration. In 1172, the fortified building was mentioned for the first time. The Lords of Kirchberg appear in documents repeatedly until their extinction in 1483.

The widow of the last Kirchberger brought the dominion into her second marriage with Christoph von Hohenfeld. His descendants owned the castle until 1555. Afterwards, the rapidly changing owners Marquard von Kuenring, Oswald von Eytzing, and Rüdiger von Starhemberg followed. In 1562, Kirchberg was sold to the Lords of Sonderndorf. Towards the end of the 16th century, they had the medieval castle transformed into a more habitable palace in the Renaissance style.

Sabine von Sonderndorf married Ernst Freiherr von Kollonitsch, bringing Kirchberg to his family in 1607. In 1619, an unsuccessful siege by Hungarian-Polish troops took place. However, greater damage was caused by the attack of Bohemian rebels two years later, during which the castle was set on fire. Leopold Karl Graf Kollonitsch and his brother Georg Wilhelm died in 1707, whereupon the dominion passed to Johann Leopold Graf Kuefstein through the marriage of the heiress. Now began the Baroque conversion, which the next owner, Graf Julius Veterani-Mallenthein, continued from 1752.

In 1828, Graf Maximilian d’Orsay bought the castle, but already five years later passed it on to Peter Ludwig Johann Herzog von Blacas d’Angoulême. Herzog Stanislaus von Blacas-Angoulême sold the castle in 1869 to Anton Fischer Ritter von Ankern. It still belongs to his family today. Like almost all castles in the Waldviertel, Kirchberg also suffered greatly towards the end of the Second World War and in the period thereafter. From 1974 to 1975, the complex was restored.