Langschlag Castle

Extensive clearings took place in the vast forests bordering Bohemia starting in 1200. Ernst von Traun, who was entrusted with this task, built a church in the middle of the Nordwald in Langschlag, which was elevated to a parish church in 1209. The area belonged to the ancestral territory of the Kuenringer, who naturally also held feudal sovereignty here. In the 13th century, the fortified court of Langschlag probably belonged to the minor noble family Tröstel. After the fall of the Kuenringer, Langschlag was annexed to the dominion of Rapottenstein. In the 15th century, the Starhembergers, who resided in Rapottenstein, were also feudal lords of Langschlag. However, there are no indications in the documents of that time that a noble seat existed here. In 1623, Ernst Hartmann von Landau zu Rapottenstein bought three farmhouses. He had them demolished and a manor house built in their place. However, this consisted only of two simple, single-story wings, which stood at right angles to each other. Together with a low wall, they surrounded a rectangular courtyard. In 1648, Georg Wilhelm von Landau sold Langschlag, along with his estates Großpertholz and Reichenau, to Baron Ferdinand Rudolf von Leysser. From him, Joachim Freiherr von Windhag acquired it in 1653. He was one of the most interesting landlords of the 17th century. As the son of a schoolmaster, he used the opportunities that the Counter-Reformation offered an ambitious Catholic at that time to rise to the rank of count and acquire several lordships in the Waldviertel.

His widow sold the estate of Langschlag to her sister Catharina Eleonora Countess Lamberg, who transferred the Freihof to her administrator Johann Georg Schatzberger in 1684. In 1705, Hans Rudolf Freiherr von Hackelberg-Landau acquired Langschlag by purchase. Although he sold it as early as 1712, it remained in the family, as Friedrich Alexander Freiherr von Hackelberg-Landau acquired it. At the beginning of the 19th century, the buildings were first used as a linen weaving mill and then as an opium factory. In 1880, a fire occurred, which necessitated extensive reconstruction work. Luise Reichsfrau von Hackelberg-Landau had the residence expanded into a castle-like structure in the Late Historicism style between 1899 and 1905, as she wanted to use it as a summer residence. After the extinction of the Hackelberg-Landau family, Langschlag passed to Othmar Freiherr von Lazarini-Zobelsperg in 1905. He had married the sister of the last representative of the Hackelberg-Landau family, who had become a priest. In 1945, the estate was confiscated by the Russian occupation forces as "German property" and the castle was designated as the seat of the Russian commandant. When it was returned to the Lazarini family in 1955, all the furnishings and the archive had disappeared. The castle is still in family ownership.

The two-story castle is a three-winged complex that borders the grounds of the former Meierhof. While its core still dates from the 17th century, externally it is a typical building of the turn of the century. Only the stone coat of arms of Count Joachim von Windhag above the round-arched entrance gate is a reminder of the old manor house. The ground floor rooms are vaulted. A beautiful wooden staircase leads to the upper floor.