Lamberg Castle

Lamberg Castle is situated on a high terrace at the confluence of the Steyr and Enns rivers in Steyr, Upper Austria.It developed from the Styraburg, which called both Steyr and the federal state of Styria.Because the castle was owned by the Counts of Lamberg from 1666 until 1938, it was given their name.

Lamberg Castle is presently a baroque castle with a groomed landscape in the English style.Johann Michael Prunner designed the designs for the baroque transformation.The city-side castle wall, the 35-meter-wide moat, and the ancient Styraburg’s keep (Roman tower) have all been maintained, as has a Gothic entrance at the foot of the castle hill.In 1666, the Renaissance fountain with the Lambergian heraldic animal was first installed in the castle courtyard.

The courtyard is surrounded by three large wings.The building site on the ledge is responsible for the triangular shape.

A fountain from 1666 lies in the courtyard’s middle, surrounded by twelve baroque sandstone dwarf sculptures.The water-spitting dog picture is the Lambergian heraldic animal. The inscription on the collar reads: FIGV LAMBERG 1666. The sandstone statues came from the former Gleink Abbey’s miniature garden and were put in the Lamberg Castle courtyard for the 1980 state fair.Johann Baptist Wuntscher, a Linz artist, sculpted these garden gnomes in 1720 as parodies of various roles, peoples, authority, and styles.

Until August 2014, this ensemble was surrounded by six linden trees erected in the 1950s.According to the Steyr magistrate, the tree roots severely damaged the well.As a consequence, on August 25, 2014, the trees were felled and the well was liberated.Later on, the fountain and dwarf statues were repaired and reinstalled.

The four-season sandstone sculptures on the southern side of the green space, like the dwarfs, were built in 1980 and are also from Gleink Abbey’s garden.

The south-east wing is dominated by the two-story baroque façade of the former castle chapel.The church has been converted into a ceremonial hall for the register office.

The baroque gate house’s hall opens onto the steps leading to the police station.

Berggasse goes to the main gateway of the castle’s southeast wing.It represents the coats of arms of the Lamberg and Harrach families.

The complex’s oldest structure is the Roman tower.The crenellated tower functioned as the keep of the old fortress.Ashlars made of non-local granite, perhaps from the old Roman legionary camp of Lauriacum, were used in the base area.

The Styraburg moat was also preserved. It is bridged by an arcade bridge built in 1728/31.As part of the Steyr Music Festival, the Graben is used for operetta performances and open-air films. Alpine ibexes have been housed there since 1988.

With almost 10,300 volumes, the baroque palace library is one of Austria’s greatest private libraries.There are 200 16th-century volumes, 2,150 17th-century volumes, 3,000 18th-century volumes, and 4,950 19th-century volumes.The majority of the works are in German, although 30% are in Latin, 10% in French, and 5% in each of Italian, Spanish, and other languages.In 1478, the first of four incunabula (incunabula) was published (Ludolf von Sachsen’s “De vita Jesu Christi”, Nuremberg).

The Berggasse is linked to Lamberg Castle by a Gothic archway that dates back to the medieval castle walls.A plastic copy of the Lamberg coat of arms, as well as a mural showing two full-length knights against a medieval Steyr backdrop, may be found near the castle entrance.Emperor Frederick III and his son Maximilian I are shown here.According to the Steyr Castle origin mythology, the two are alternately regarded as the knights who fought to determine the castle’s site.Otto Götzinger created his first piece in Steyr in 1949, a fresco.After the Ennstor was demolished in 1864, a painting of two knights was re-executed on the Mauthäusl in Haratzmüllerstraße. Because this artwork was in such bad shape at the end of WWII, Götzinger was commissioned to repaint it at the lower castle gate.

In 1476, a castle garden was established for the first time by Johannes Beckenschlager, the fleeing Archbishop of Gran and afterwards Archbishop of Salzburg.In March 1844, what was initially a French beautiful garden was transformed into an English landscape park.The public has had access to it since July 23, 1919, and the municipality leased it on August 1, 1919.The park was taken over by the Reich Forest Administration in 1938, along with Count Lamberg’s allodial possessions, and this land was passed to the Reichsgau Oberdonau above in 1942.He gave the city the park, as well as the glass houses, water tower, and garden pavilion.The garden pavilion (Blumauergasse 1) had been inactive for a long time until being resurrected in 1969/72, with the most recent renovation completed in 2002.

The Trinity Column, which stands at the entrance to the Blumauergasse, was erected in 1714 and was previously positioned on Leopold-Werndl-Straße.In 1974, it was upgraded to its present level.