Schloss Hernstein, Castle estate in Hernstein, Austria

Schloss Hernstein is a two-storey four-winged building on a slightly skewed rectangular plan, rebuilt in English Gothic style by Theophil von Hansen from 1855. Towers with steep hipped roofs rise above the passages on the narrower side wings, and the windows are grouped with tracery parapets and pinnacles. The interior frescoes are by Christian Griepenkerl, Eduard Bitterlich, August Eisenmenger and Carl Rahl.

Karl Josef Graf Heussenstein converted an existing Meierhof into a Hofhaus between 1727 and 1730. In 1830 Archduke Rainer acquired the four-winged, two-storey building around a rectangular courtyard. His son Leopold Ludwig commissioned Theophil von Hansen in 1855 to rebuild it as a hunting lodge in English Gothic style; the facades were finished after two years, the interiors by 1880. In 1943 Anton Habsburg-Lothringen sold it to the Erste Österreichische Sparkasse, and from 1945 it housed the Russian high command.

The garden gate south of the park was built in 1857 to a design by Theophil von Hansen: a stepped, crenellated portal group with a large ogee-arched gate between piers, flanked by smaller shoulder-arched gates. To its right stands the L-shaped porter's lodge of rubble masonry under a saddle roof.

The estate is accessible to visitors and offers accommodation options in the modern guest building where you can experience the historical property. The extensive gardens and forested areas can be explored on foot.

A medieval defense tower stands behind the castle and retains its original rectangular windows from the 12th century. This early structure provides a contrast to the Gothic elements added later to the main building.