Viehofen Castle

Viehofen Castle is located in St. Pölten’s Viehofen neighborhood.The cliff-top castle was practically in ruins before it was rebuilt in 2003.

The Viehofner Castle was first recorded in Göttweig traditions in 1130, although it is thought to be earlier.The property rights of the diocese of Passau to the castle were recognized by Pope Alexander III in a letter in 1179, although the castle chapel is only referenced for the first time in 1248.The castle and church are documented to be owned by the St. Pölten Monastery in this document.The ministerial lineage of the “Viehofner” is established in the 12th and 13th centuries, and Reinprecht von Wallsee became ministerial in the early 14th century. The Viehofen dominion’s chief bearer.The castle was owned by the Wallseer family until the end of the 15th century.The rule passed to Bernhard von Kirchberg in 1508 after a series of short-term owners.He inherited the castle from the emperor, who had purchased it in 1491 from the bishops of Passau.The Kirchberg family held the property until approximately 1640, when it transferred to a succession of lords of the castle: the castle passed from the lords of Wuschletitsch to the Counts of Herberstein in 1665, who handed it on to the von Wellenstein family as early as 1712.The Counts of Kuefstein took over the castle in 1745 and held it until 2003.

The castle chapel served as the parish church of the then-independent hamlet until the church in Viehofen was built in 1898.Until 1945, the castle was inhabited and equipped.The Russian occupying troops used the castle as an ammo storage facility, and once they left, the inhabitants demolished the edifice.The castle deteriorated throughout the decades, and a portion of it was destroyed in 1966.The roof and roof truss fell in the years that followed.Josef Figl purchased the property from a bankruptcy estate in 2003 and has been restoring it ever since.