Anras-Gericht, Pfleghof, Medieval castle and museum in Anras, Austria.
The Anras-Gericht, Pfleghof is a castle with thick stone walls and a rectangular layout that rises above the village of Anras. The building displays architectural features from multiple construction periods, with additions and modifications that reveal the centuries of its use.
In 1236 Emperor Frederick II granted the Bishops of Brixen secular authority over the lordship of Anras, where estate administration and jurisdiction developed together. The estate later reached as far as Obertilliach and the Lienzer Klause. In 1754 the building was extended in Baroque style. The Messerschmitt Foundation bought and restored it in 1991, and it reopened to the public in 2022.
The building is also called Schloss Anras, though it was never a noble residence but the administrative seat of the Bishops of Brixen. Its court rooms (Gerichtsstuben) date from 1755 and retain their panelling; the Kornkasten, a granary, recalls the grain tithes that earned the village the nickname 'granary of East Tyrol'. Since 2022 the municipality uses the house for offices and cultural events.
The building reopened to the public in 2022 after being closed since 2014. Valuable panelling, the courtrooms of 1755 and the grain granary can be visited again. It is used by the municipality of Anras as an office building and cultural venue, with temporary exhibitions planned for the summer months.
The Messerschmitt Foundation bought the building in 1991, not 1989, and restored it; from 1997 it housed a permanent Paul Flora exhibition and a court museum. It closed to the public in 2014 and reopened in 2022, when the Tyrolean provincial government granted the municipality of Anras use of the house for 50 years.
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