Schloss Vogelsang, Protected heritage castle in Steyr, Austria.
Schloss Vogelsang is a three-storey neo-Gothic villa built in 1882 at Preuenhueberstraße 14 in Steyr. Its rectangular plan rises from a stone-block base, with four corner towers and crenellations giving it a castle-like look. A triangular gable with a rosette closes the central axis, and a glazed roof lantern lights the staircase.
Josef Werndl bought the Vogelsang plot in 1873 and had Anton Plochberger build the villa from 1877; it was finished in 1882. Plochberger had travelled to Scotland to study a castle, and the facade borrows late-Gothic Tudor elements. After his wife Karoline Antonia died, Werndl lost interest, offered the shell to the city as an almshouse in 1878, and was refused.
The castle served as an exhibition venue during the 1884 Industrial and Electrical Exhibition, showcasing technological progress in the region.
The building at Preuenhueberstraße 14 now holds senior citizens' owner-occupied flats, so the interior is not open. The facade and the small urn on its pedestal in the front garden can be seen from the street. A second historic gate survives at the southwest side, at the corner of Volksstraße and Redtenbachergasse.
The four-tonne copper roof was removed in 1916 for the war materials collection and replaced with sheet metal. The glazed lantern above the staircase, the low attic windows of the 1920s and the 1967 indoor pool added at the rear show successive alterations.
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