Schallaburg

Schallaburg Castle is a castle in the village of Schallaburg in the municipality of Schollach, near the Wachau valley, Lower Austria, north of the Alps. Schallaburg Renaissance Castle is 5 kilometres (3 mi) from Melk, in the region known as Mostviertel. The central part of the castle was built in the German Renaissance Age, beginning around 1540, by the Losenstein dynasty.

In 1242, the castle appears in a document for the first time mentioned as fortress Schala. From the 13th to the 15th century the castle was owned by the lords of Zelking (German: von Zelking). From 1456 until 1614, castle Schallaburg was in the possession of the family von Losenstein. In the 16th century Hans Wilhelm von Losenstein renovated it into a Renaissance style, and rebuilt the church of Loosdorf into a Renaissance Lutheran church. There he also founded a Lutheran grammar school for youths of both nobility and non-nobility ('die Hohe Schule', 1574-1627). In 1601 Hans Wilhelm von Losenstein died, resulting in rested high debts on the castle.

In 1614 the father-in-law of George Christoph auf Losensteinleithen, George von Stubenberg, bought the castle. In 1627 the church and school were closed according to a law issued by the archduke of Austria emperor Ferdinand II, who wished to restore the Catholic faith in Lower Austria. From the 17th century until the 20th, the castle changed owners several times. It remained private property until 1945. In 1945 it was confiscated by the Russians, and then in 1955 the castle became property of the new Republic of Austria.

The castle is combination of a Romanesque residential castle and a Gothic chapel, patterned in the Italian Renaissance style. Aesthetically built, it has a well-decorated two-storied arcaded court with elegant cantilevered staircases and a courtyard. The decorations are in terracotta mosaic depicting mythological figures, gods, masks and human beings and animals; a legendary mythical figurine here is known as Hundefräulein (a female human figure with a dog's head).

At the gate entrance to the castle, there are two large "smoke-spewing dragons", each 30 metres (98 ft) long and 6 metres (20 ft) high, which is a favourite entertainment spot for the children to slide down its mouth from the top.

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

Schallaburg ranks #2,007 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #49 of the 200 mapped in Austria. Founded c. 1540, it is older than 42% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 718 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,022 times in the last 60 days, more than 75% of the atlas. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is St. Pölten, 19 km away. See how Austria compares in the castle statistics.

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