Schöndorf Castle

Schöndorf Castle is located in the municipality of Vöcklabruck in the district of Vöcklabruck in Upper Austria (Gmundner Straße 76).

In the 12th century, vassals of the Regauer counts were settled in Schöndorf. In 1135, a Wezilo von Schöndorf, through During von Vöckla, transferred his property in Wagrain to the Prince-Provostry of Berchtesgaden. In 1301, a Friedrich von Schöndorf acquired a Mondsee fiefdom on Lake Attersee. His sons were vassals of Heinrich von Schaunburg. In 1313, a Maynhart der Schondorfer is mentioned. In 1373, Nikolaus Perkheimer named himself after the seat of Schöndorf. In a document from St. Florian Abbey, an Andreas Schöndorfer appears among the knightly witnesses in 1453.

Schöndorf was half under the feudal lordship of the Habsburg sovereign and half under that of the Paiss zu Mitterberg. The rights of the Paiss passed to the Fronhofer zu Walkering in 1550.

In 1572, Hans Plass zu Hofegg, the administrator of the Puchheim lordship, acquired rights to the Schöndorf mill, which he then sold back to Weikard von Polheim. In exchange, he received subjects and properties of the Schöndorf lordship from Hans Frondorfer and sold the entire property in 1602 to David Engl zu Wagrain. This family remained in possession of Schöndorf until 1848. Thereafter, Schöndorf passed to the Braun family from Konstanz, who founded the file and tool factory, Ernst Braun & Söhne, there (from 1999 Braun's Maschinenfabrik Ges.m.b.H.). Isidor Karl Braun (1801–1866) was the founder of the company, which is still run as a family business today.

A fire in 1934 destroyed parts of the castle; consequently, two small towers were not rebuilt.