Schloss Thurnhof zu Linsberg, Medieval castle in Bad Erlach, Austria.
Schloss Thurnhof zu Linsberg is a three-wing Baroque castle in Bad Erlach, arranged in a horseshoe shape open to the east around a courtyard. The south wing preserves the 1.10–1.20 m thick walls of a medieval residential tower, up to about eight metres high. A chapel with a free-standing bell tower adjoins the northwest corner, and a Tudor Tower with a crenellated top stands at the southeast corner.
A Konrad von Linsberg is named in the Vornbach monastery's Traditionskodex around 1126, suggesting a fortified seat existed then. In 1463 Emperor Frederick III bought the estate and in 1467 enfeoffed the Augustinian canons of St. Ulrich; in 1551 it passed to the Diocese of Wiener Neustadt. Martin Franz Bärtl, steward of Bishop Franz Anton von Puchheim, redeemed the indebted estate in 1714 and from about 1730 built the three-winged Baroque castle using the ruined medieval fabric.
The castle chapel adjoins the main building at its northwest corner and has a free-standing bell tower. A frieze of ornamented terracotta tiles runs between the eaves and a lower cornice, and the west porch's triangular gable is decorated with terracotta appliqués, probably added in the first half of the 19th century rather than in the Baroque period. The lower floor holds the barrel-vaulted Mostkeller, dated by an inscribed stone to 1735.
The castle and its park are private and not open to the public, but the building is clearly visible from the public road. It stands between Brunn an der Pitten and Bad Erlach, in the village of Linsberg within the municipality of Bad Erlach.
The name Thurnhof derives from the medieval residential tower in the south wing, whose walls are 1.10 to 1.20 metres thick and still stand about eight metres high. The barrel-vaulted Mostkeller beneath the chapel is dated by an inscribed stone to 1735.
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