Zeillern Castle

The area was gifted by King Ludwig to the Niederaltaich monastery in 863. It is presumed that Zeillern passed to their vogts, the Counts of Bogen and Zeydlarn, at the beginning of the 11th century. In 1052, a "Chuno von cidelaren" is mentioned, who owned a moated castle at this location. Hartnit von Traun (1239 – 1280) is the first lord of Zeillern to be historically documented.

When Otto the Younger von Traun died in 1329, his children sold the lordship to Jans von Capell. In 1361, Ulrich von Kremsdorf is mentioned as the lord of Zeillern. In 1380, Duke Albrecht III enfeoffed Bernhard von Seisenegg with the castle, as the Habsburgs had by then secured suzerainty. In 1413, a separate regional court of Zeillern was established and linked to the lordship.

Zeillern was acquired by Johann Baptist von Lappitz in 1532. With his son Hans Andrä, the family died out in 1567. The total assets were then divided into twelve parts. This fragmentation led to the sale of the shares in 1577. The buyer was Albrecht von Enenkel, who had previously held only a minority share of the lordship. In 1582, he sold Zeillern to Philipp Jakob von Grünthal. The latter began the reconstruction of the old castle. In 1605, Wolf Friedrich Freiherr von Tattenbach bought the castle, which had shortly before been extended by two wings. During the time of the Turkish invasions, Zeillern was one of those places of refuge for the civilian population that always had to be kept in a state of readiness for defense. In 1637, Wolf Dietrich Freiherr von Tattenbach was elevated to the rank of count, which was probably the reason for the reconstruction.

The Tattenbachs sold Zeillern to Conrad Balthasar Graf Starhemberg in 1664. The Starhembergs always had the lordship administered by stewards. Towards the end of the Starhemberg rule, the castle fell into disrepair due to lack of maintenance. In 1867, Camillo Rüdiger Fürst von Starhemberg had to accept the sequestration of the estate. Afterwards, it passed into bourgeois hands, which usually changed relatively quickly. The last private estate and castle owner, Franz Kirchweger, sold most of the land belonging to the castle to local farmers.

In 1898, the castle was acquired half by the Association of Cooperative Health Insurance Funds Vienna and half by the General Workers', Sickness and Support Fund Vienna. The latter became the sole owner of Zeillern Castle in 1933. From it eventually emerged the Workers' Pension Insurance Institution, which operated the building as a convalescent home. In 1970, the building no longer met the increased demands and was sold to Franz Eichinger from Vienna. He sold it in 1976 to the market town of Zeillern. However, it was not until 1982 that a permanent use could be found. Since 1988, it has been used as a seminar and training center by the Lower Austrian Wind Music Association and many other organizers.