Schloss Hohenstein, Renaissance castle in Liebenfels, Austria.

Schloss Hohenstein is a Renaissance castle on a low hill above the Glantal valley in the municipality of Liebenfels, Carinthia. Its main two-storey block has a cross-shaped plan: a long east-west wing with semicircular towers at both ends is crossed by a shorter north-south wing holding the stairs and a first-floor hall with a fireplace. A four-column arcade and a southern tower form a small courtyard, and a high defensive wall surrounds the building.

Hermann Kulmer von Rosenpichl built the residence from 1538 under a permit from Ferdinand I, and Balthasar Kulmer enlarged it in 1589, as a walled inscription above the bridge door records. The Protestant Kulmer family held it for over a hundred years before selling it during the Counter-Reformation. After neglect and use as a storehouse in the 19th century, Eduard von Maltzahn had the dilapidated building radically restored from 1947.

The castle is private and closed to the public, so there is no restaurant or visitor trade. Its name recalls the earlier fortified site called Hawenstein, mentioned in 1356, and the Kulmer family who built here from 1538. An 18th-century inscription above the staircase welcomes lovers of art and arms and asks that soulless people stay outside.

The castle is private and not open to the public, so visits are limited to views of the exterior from the surrounding area. It stands on a low hill near the federal road between Feldkirchen in Kärnten and Sankt Veit an der Glan, enclosed by woodland and hard to see from the road. The main building rises two storeys behind a high defensive wall.

The drawbridge in front of the entrance is one of the few in Austria still in working order, and some of its stone weights, rollers and chains are original. A sundial of 1594 under the roof of the smaller building keeps the Kulmer-Staubach alliance coat of arms.