Castle Wagrain, Manor house in Vöcklabruck, Austria

Castle Wagrain is a manor house in Vöcklabruck shaped like a horseshoe with two round towers at its corners. The two-story building has a mansard roof and covered arcades along both wings, while a glass-enclosed courtyard built in 2000 sits in the interior.

Wagrain was first documented in 1135 and passed to the Engl family of Steyr in 1447. Emperor Maximilian I raised it to a noble estate in 1499, and the Engls kept it until the early 20th century, apart from a religiously motivated interruption around 1620. The male line ended with Count Siegmund Engl, whose daughter Berta married a Count von Spiegelfeld; that family sold the castle to the town of Vöcklabruck in 1950.

The Engl family coat of arms is carved into the south side of the gable, inscribed with the motto "1448 Fürchte Gott, Tue Recht, Scheue Niemand 1848" (Fear God, Act Just, Eschew None). The family, raised to the rank of Counts in 1717, held the castle until the male line died out with Count Siegmund Engl in 1911. Since 1950 the building has served as a school, most recently the Bundesrealgymnasium Schloss Wagrain.

The building now houses a federal secondary school with modern facilities integrated into its historical spaces. Access and viewing opportunities depend on school activities, so it is best to plan ahead before visiting.

The gateway tower vanished entirely when two of the four round towers were demolished during an early 18th-century expansion. The arcades of the side buildings have since been glazed, and the former household building east of the castle was torn down in 1980 to make way for an HTL workshop.