Gloggnitz Castle, Gothic monastery in Gloggnitz, Austria

Gloggnitz Castle is a three-storey Baroque building, formerly a Benedictine monastery, whose north side has a castle-like character. Two late-Gothic gatehouses lead into a polygonal courtyard, once a cemetery, in the middle of which stands the monastery church. A 1.5-metre-thick, 11.5-metre-high medieval ring wall with rectangular loopholes adjoins the second gatehouse, and arcades and blind arcades line the courtyard.

A Benedictine monastery was founded at Gloggnitz after the abbey of Vornbach was raised to abbey status in 1094 and received lands around Neunkirchen, Pitten and Gloggnitz. The monastery was dissolved in 1803 with Vornbach, sold in 1825 to Josef Ritter von Weyna as a private estate, and has belonged to the town of Gloggnitz since 1930. The monastery church lost its role after the Christkönigskirche was completed in 1962.

Since 1992 the castle has operated as Austria's first wedding castle, and couples still marry in the former monastery church, as their parents and grandparents did. Concerts, exhibitions and the annual Ö3 disco in the castle park use the grounds, and the church's baroque furnishings sit over a Gothic core.

The complex is reached from the S6 motorway at the Gloggnitz exit. The café-restaurant opens at weekends and on public holidays, when most excursion traffic passes through; since 2003 it has been run by Günter Brentrup. The grounds, event hall and special exhibition rooms can be booked for weddings, concerts and festivals.

The wedding chapel project launched in 1992 made Gloggnitz Austria's first wedding castle, a role it still fills. Couples marry in the former monastery church, and the grounds host the annual Ö3 disco and the Eichberg volunteer fire brigade's castle park festival.