Schloss Ruegers

Ruegers Castle (also called Riegersburg Castle until 2017) is a Baroque castle in Riegersburg near Hardegg in Austria, near the border with the Czech Republic.

There are varying reports regarding the first mention of Riegersburg in the border area of Weinviertel and Waldviertel in Lower Austria: The oldest mention comes from the year 1212 (property of the Counts Hardegg or their followers), another source gives the year 1390 (a castle called Ruegers is mentioned).

In 1568, Sigmund, Count of Hardegg, acquired the castle from the Eyczingers, who had owned it since 1441. He had a moated castle built in place of the dilapidated castle and set up his administrative headquarters for the Counts of Hardegg here, as well as his residence. After taking over, his son Johann Wilhelm von Hardegg set about buying up indebted estates and thereby got himself into a serious financial crisis. After his death in 1635, his estate was declared bankrupt. His heir, Julius von Hardegg, took over the debts and, in order to pay them back, sold the Counties of Riegersburg and Hardegg in 1656.

The buyers were the Counts of Saint Julien-Wallsee, who in turn sold the County of Hardegg as well as the lordships of Riegersburg, Prutzendorf and Obermixnitz and Untermixnitz, including all their belongings, on 1 August 1730 to Sigmund Friedrich von Khevenhüller, who had been elevated to Imperial Count in 1725.

A few days later, the buyer set off for Riegersburg with his son Johann Joseph von Khevenhüller-Metsch, who had co-signed the purchase contract, where he found a dilapidated and most likely uninhabitable building. The castle in its current form was built in several phases between 1730 and 1780 according to plans by Franz Anton Pilgram, a student of Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt.

The chapel in the north wing of the castle was consecrated in 1755.

In 1945, some displaced persons from neighboring South Moravia were housed in the castle, then the Soviet occupying forces moved in. After their departure in 1955, not much of the original furnishings remained. They only left a newly installed stove in the master kitchen, which is still in working order today.

The castle was partially renovated for the Lower Austrian State Exhibition in 1993 under the motto "Family – Ideal and Reality".

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

Schloss Ruegers ranks #5,912 of 8,764 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #157 of the 223 mapped in Austria. 9 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Brno, 72 km away. See how Austria compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗