Burg Clam, Medieval castle and museum in Klam, Austria

Burg Clam is a castle on a wooded ridge above the market of Klam in Upper Austria, at 337 metres above sea level. Its oldest surviving part is the round tower built in the 13th century; the rest was largely rebuilt in the 14th century by the Hauser family. A forecourt with an irregular yard leads through a wrought-iron gate into an arcaded courtyard bounded by a stone balustrade, with sgraffiti on the palas wall.

Burg Clam was first documented in 1142, when it belonged to Walchun, brother of Otto von Machland. A supposed mention from 1125 is probably a 13th-century forgery. In 1217 it passed to the sovereign, and from 1524 the Perger family held it; Johann Gottfried Perger had it extensively renovated from 1640. Since 1815 it has belonged to the Clam-Martinic family.

The castle is still lived in year-round by the Clam-Martinic family, and its museum rooms hold the family's own furnishings: a porcelain collection in the breakfast room, a Gothic house altar in the Ancestral Hall, and a castle pharmacy with a medicine chest dated 1603. The name Clam passed to the family through Ulrich von Clam-Velburg, who died on the Damiette crusade in 1217.

The castle is a private residence lived in year-round, so interiors are seen only on guided tours through the museum rooms. The complex stands on a wooded ridge above the market of Klam, with the rock it was built on reaching up to the first floor. The oldest visible part is the round tower from the 13th century; a wrought-iron gate leads from the outer bailey into the arcaded courtyard.

The castle has never been destroyed, which is why many pieces of furniture and a large number of historical small treasures have survived. In the fourth floor of the Palas, a second chapel from the 14th century was rediscovered in 1934, alongside the chapel consecrated to the Holy Cross.