Wolfsberg Castle, Medieval castle in Wolfsberg, Austria.
Wolfsberg Castle is a hilltop castle in the town of Wolfsberg in the Austrian region of Carinthia, overlooking the town center below. The building combines medieval foundations with English Gothic elements added in the 19th century, including towers, pointed arches, and decorative stonework.
The estate belonged to the Bishopric of Bamberg from 1007; the castle was first documented in 1178 in a charter of Saint Paul's Abbey. From the second quarter of the 14th century until Bamberg sold its Carinthian holdings to the Austrian state in 1759, it housed the bishop's vice-dominus. Italian architects fortified it against the Turks in the 16th century, adding a bell tower in 1561. Hugo Henckel von Donnersmarck bought it in 1846 and had Johann Romano and August Schwendenwein rebuild it in English Tudor style from 1847 to 1853.
Since 1937 the castle has belonged to Kärntner Montanindustrie GmbH, which rents its halls for events and weddings; the managing director is Andreas Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck. A restaurant in the castle is run by the Stölzl family. The name Henckel-Donnersmarck recalls the industrialist Hugo Henckel von Donnersmarck, who bought the estate in 1846.
The castle stands on a hill in the north of Wolfsberg, reachable on foot from the town centre. The halls are rented out for events and weddings, and a castle restaurant is run by the Stölzl family. The extensive landscape garden from the 1850s is protected as a garden monument.
The castle's present Tudor look dates from Hugo Henckel von Donnersmarck's rebuild of 1847–1853 by Viennese architects Johann Romano and August Schwendenwein; almost nothing of the earlier Renaissance structure survives. The former riding school, built in 1855 in Neo-Romanesque style, is also listed, as is the 1850s landscape garden, named in Austria's Monument Protection Act.
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