Kammer Castle, Protected castle in Schörfling am Attersee, Austria.
Kammer Castle is a massive rectangular three-storey building with two low side wings enclosing a courtyard, standing on a peninsula in the northern Attersee. Its white facade has rows of small rectangular windows and round windows on the upper level, under a dark hipped roof with two tiers of dormer windows. A lower wing extends to the right, and a stone retaining wall with wooden steps leads from the lawn to the water.
Haidfalk von Chammer is documented as the first owner in 1165. From 1200 a fortified castle of the Schaunberg county stood here, and in 1386 it was sold to the Habsburgs. Emperor Rudolf II sold Kammer to Johann Khevenhüller in 1581; the family kept it after selling Kogl and Frankenburg following the Bavarian occupation of 1810–1816. In the early 1990s Sissy Max-Theurer bought and renovated the decaying castle.
Gustav Klimt painted Kammer Castle and its surroundings in numerous works around 1909–1910, including the oil painting Schloss Kammer am Attersee III, now in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna. He also depicted the avenue of lime trees leading to the castle in his painting Allee zum Schloss Kammer.
The castle is private property and can only be visited during official events, so there is no general admission. It stands at Hauptstraße 28 in Schörfling am Attersee, on a peninsula in the northern part of the lake; the municipality acquired much of the castle park and laid out a public area there. The wooden steps and stone retaining wall by the lawn lead down to the water.
The castle's alternative name gave Lake Attersee its outdated German name Kammersee, and through the castle the name passed to the Salzkammergut region. The building stands on what was once an island with a footbridge to the shore; it became a peninsula only later. Gustav Klimt painted the lime-tree avenue leading to the castle in his Attersee picture Allee zum Schloss Kammer.
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