Riegerting Castle

Riegerting Castle is located in the eponymous district of the municipality of Mehrnbach in the Ried im Innkreis district in Upper Austria. As a Hofmark castle, it was the manorial seat of the Hofmark Riegerting. Since the Riegerting district is not signposted, the castle is somewhat difficult to find. Remarkably, the name is pronounced by locals as rikertinɡ, which is closer to the earlier designation (Rueckering) than to the current name.

Riegerting is first mentioned in 1363 in the Friedburg Urbar as Rueckering. The first owner mentioned in 1363 is Hanns Zärtl zue Rueckering. The Zärtls resided here until the extinction of their lineage. Further known from 1479 are the knights Wilhelm (1489–1491) and Christoph († 1543) von Zärtl; the latter was married to Elisabeth Taimer († 1537) and was the last bearer of the Zärtl name; his epitaph is preserved in the church of Mehrnbach.

Successors were Wolf Scharffseder, who was married to a sister of the childless Christoph Zärtel. Hans Jakob had the castle extended in 1545. Other Scharffseders were Wolf (1551) and Wolf Siegmund (1554); the latter handed over Riegerting to his sons Stephan and Hans. A Hans Georg died in 1594, his son Johann Jakob (1587–1657) is buried in Mehrnbach. The Scharffseders received the building rights to the lordship from Elector Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria. Gravestones of the Scharffseders can be found in Unterdietfurt.

In 1652, Riegerting came as a dowry of Christine Cordula von Scharffseder to Baron Otto von Seiboltsdorff, administrator in Braunau (1669–1672) and in Ried im Innkreis (1672–1690 and 1704). They had the new castle building and the castle chapel erected in 1697. The old water-surrounded seat of Ruekering was located southwest of the current castle chapel; only outbuildings of the old complex are still preserved from this building, but the complex (with the surrounding pond) is clearly visible in Wening's engraving (1721). His son Franz Gottfried von Freyenseiboldstorff was also administrator in Ried until his death († 1703). One of his sons, Otto Philipp Graf von Freyenseiboldstorff auf Riegerting († 1720), was also administrator in Ried (1715–1720); his brother Herrmann Ludwig became a canon in Regensburg in 1726 († 1741).

Maria Barbara von Seiboltsdorff was married to Count Lerchenfeld-Brennberg. She inherited the lordship of Riegerting in 1741 from her brother, the Regensburg canon. Through marriage, Riegerting passed to the Counts of Wartenburg in 1763 and again to the Count of Lerchenfeld in 1769, who was followed by his widow in 1779. Thereafter, Riegerting came to Count von Haslang († 1803), whose son Max Emanuel died as a 19-year-old student in Munich.

In 1829, Baron Philipp von Venningen acquired the property with Mairing Castle and half of Aspach. Since then, the estate has been owned by the von Venningen family.