Schloss Eibiswald

Eibiswald Castle was originally owned by the von Mureck family. After their extinction it became princely. The castle at that time had to secure the road over the Radlpass. In 1255 it was awarded to Herbort von Füllenstein with the associated regional court. At that time it was first mentioned in a document. The name of the castle is not derived from a yew tree, as one might assume, but rather goes back to a Mr. Iwein. In the 13th century it was called Ybanswalde. It was built around 1170, however. Duke Albrecht I handed over the rule as a fief to Hertnit von Wildon in 1294. This received it as a modest compensation for his castles at Wildon, which he had lost because of participating in an uprising against the sovereign. The Wildoners used servants as administrators who kept calling themselves after Eibiswald, even though they did not come from a family. The Lords of Wilthausen inherited Hertnit IV von Wildon in 1332, but had to pledge Eibiswald to Haug von Tybein in 1345 in order to settle various inheritance claims. His descendants had similar problems, which were only solved in 1401 by a settlement in which the castle fell to Rudolf von Wallsee. In the Wallseer feud, in which Reinprecht von Wallsee fought against Duke Ernst, Eibiswald was stormed by the latter's mercenaries. When the peace agreement that followed, the people of Wallsee got their castle back. Wolfgang von Wallsee had to pledge Eibiswald to Leutold von Stubenberg in 1456, but was soon able to redeem it. In 1464 he sold the rule to Emperor Friedrich III. A few years later it was leased to Wilhelm Graßl. When he fell in the fight against the Turks, Andree Spangsteiner took over the lease in 1475. In 1479 the Hungarians occupied the fortress. Emperor Maximilian I transferred the rule to Siegmund von Eibiswald in 1500. His son Hans distinguished himself in repelling the Turkish siege of Vienna. In 1532 the Turks who invaded over the Radlpass devastated the farms belonging to the rulership, but did not attack the castle.

In 1572 the old fortification burned down. Wilhelm von Eibiswald began the extensive expansion into a renaissance castle, but died in 1576. The rule fell back to the sovereign. Wilhelm's brothers Christof and Georg were not allowed to buy them but only to lease them. When Archduke Karl of Inner Austria handed Eibiswald over to his favorite Hans Leyb in 1579, the Eibiswald residents were so bitter that they only left the bare walls to him and even dug up the fruit trees in the garden. Leyb continued the expansion of the castle. In 1622 Julius Neidhart von Mörsperg replaced the rule and was able to acquire it as a free property in 1624. In 1639 Eibiswald was bought again by the barons of Eibiswald. They had already been entrusted with the office of the highest hereditary falcon master in Styria in 1632. Wolf Maximilian Freiherr von Eibiswald stabbed his friend, Count Gottfried von Schrottenbach, to death during a drinking bout, but this had no serious consequences for him. With his death in 1674 the Styrian line of the Eibiswalder expired. His daughter was married to Otto Wilhelm Graf Schrottenbach, so that the castle fell to his family. Siegmund Rudolf Graf Schrottenbach, who took over Eibiswald in 1692, was a bad peasant smuggler, but who also lived in constant quarrels with his own family. In 1775 Ignaz Ernst Purgay came to Eibiswald as administrator. He leased the manor in 1784 and bought it in 1800. Failed speculations led to it being sequestered in 1820 and sold to Friedrich Georg Hansa in 1829. The Hansa family sat in the castle until 1883 and occasionally also appointed the town's mayor. In 1890 the Vinzenzverein for voluntary poor relief came into the possession of the castle. He set up a boarding school for boys in it, which existed until 1938. The building has been owned by the Styrian Chamber of Commerce since 1953 and is used as a state vocational school for electrical installation technology and radio mechanics. The castle was last thoroughly restored in 1985. (c) www.burgen-austria.com

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