Burgstall Hohenstein, castle site in Engerwitzdorf, Austria

Burgstall Hohenstein is the site of an abandoned hilltop castle in the Hohenstein district of Engerwitzdorf. The rampart and ditch are heavily eroded, and behind them rises a rocky hill with the early Gothic church of St. Ägidius, built from stone of the former castle chapel. At the northwest corner of the church wall stands the so-called Opferstein, likely once the jamb of the castle gate.

The builders of the castle are unknown; it lay where the Otakare, the Luftenberg, Haselbach, Haunsberg and Katsdorf families held influence, any of whom could have charged a knight with building it. The Hohensteiners appear in the 12th century, and a charter of 7 January 1281 records a land exchange between Wilhering Abbey and Albero von Hohenstein. By 1332 the Kapellen family held the Hohenstein estate, and the castle was evidently already abandoned.

The name Hohenstein, recorded as "am heiligen Stein" in a 1332 document, may point to a pre-Christian cult or settlement site, since a stone axe fragment and a hand axe were found below the rock. The early Gothic church of St. Ägidius, built from the stone of the former castle chapel, has been privately owned by the Wall family since 1786.

The site is reached on foot from Hohenstein; weathered stone steps lead up the rocky hill, with the church standing to the right of the path. The wall and ditch of the former castle are heavily worn down, and the ground behind the rock is steep. Excavations in 1981 and 1982 took place at the foot of the rock, not on the castle site itself.

Excavations in 1981 and 1982 at the foot of the rock, led by Alfred Höllhuber, Franz Kranzler and Leopold Josef Mayböck, uncovered Romanesque and early Gothic pottery sherds, an arrowhead, knives, spurs, an axe, keys and a scallop shell, plus a silver Breitpfennig struck in Enns around 1158 and a Hälbling from around 1170. A fragment of a polished stone axe and a stone hand axe also came to light, which may explain the recurring belief that the site was a pre-Christian cult or settlement place.