Lengberg Castle

Lengberg Castle is a castle in Nikolsdorf, East Tyrol, Austria, about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) east of Lienz. The castle was built by the earls of Lechsgemünde beginning in the late 12th century, and came under the control of the Archbishop of Salzburg in the 13th century.

During the 15th century, a second storey was added to the structure by Austrian noble Virgil von Graben. In 1485, the castle's chapel was completely rebuilt, and was consecrated by the Bishop of Caorle, Pietro Carlo, in October of that year. Both the addition of the second storey and the chapel construction were recorded by Paolo Santonino, an Italian humanist known for his travel diaries. The area was ceded to the Kingdom of Bavaria during the Napoleonic Wars and was returned to Austrian control after the Congress of Vienna.

Lengberg Castle passed into private ownership beginning in 1821. It was used as a hospital during an 1831 cholera epidemic. Purchased by a Dutch businessman in the early 20th century, it was extensively renovated to return it to an inhabitable state.

Text adapted from “Lengberg Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lengberg Castle ranks #2,971 of 3,691 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #86 of the 131 mapped in Austria. Founded 1190, it is older than 84% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 194 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. See how Austria compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗