Moosham Castle (german: Schloss Moosham) is a medieval castle near Unternberg in the

Lungau Bezirk Tamsweg is an administrative district (''Bezirk'') in the federal state of Salzburg, Austria. It is congruent with the Lungau region (). The administrative centre of the district is Tamsweg. Geography The area of the Lungau plateau is 1,0 ...

region of

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. The

spur castle A spur castle is a type of medieval fortification that is sited on a spur of a hill or mountain for defensive purposes. Ideally, it would be protected on three sides by steep hillsides; the only vulnerable side being that where the spur joins the ...

is situated at a height of .Moosham Castle Height and Location
/ref>

History

Possibly built on the foundations of a Roman ''

castrum In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a po ...

'' fortress, the castle was first documented in an 1191 deed. It was seized by the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg about 1285 and from the 14th century onwards served as the residence of an episcopal

burgrave Burgrave, also rendered as burggrave (from german: Burggraf, la, burgravius, burggravius, burcgravius, burgicomes, also praefectus), was since the medieval period in Europe (mainly Germany) the official title for the ruler of a castle, especia ...

. Under the rule of Prince-Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach from 1495, the castle was rebuilt and extended. In 1520, it became an administrative seat of the Lungau region and was besieged during the German Peasants' War of 1524–25. Archbishop

Wolf Dietrich Raitenau Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (26 March 1559 – 16 January 1617) was Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1587 to 1612. Life Raitenau was born at Hofen Castle in Lochau, near Bregenz in Further Austria, the son of the Habsburg colonel Hans Werne ...

stayed here on his flight from

in October 1611, shortly before he was captured. Moosham Castle served as the administrative center during the Zaubererjackl witch trials between 1675 and 1690. These trials led to the execution of 139 people. Unusually, most of those executed were male. Among those executed, 39 were children (between 10 and 14 years old), 53 were teenagers and young adults (between 15 and 21), 21 of unknown age; 113 were of male gender; everyone except two were beggars. The youngest was Hannerl, 10 years old, and the oldest was Margarethe Reinberg, 80 years old. 109 were executed during 1681. They were tortured and burned; some of them alive, others after having been hanged or decapitated – some of them after having had their hands cut off and marked with a burning iron. Archbishop

Count Hieronymus von Colloredo Hieronymus Joseph Franz de Paula Graf Colloredo von Wallsee und Melz (Jérôme Joseph Franz de Paula, Count of Colloredo-Wallsee and Mels; ) was Prince-Bishop of Gurk from 1761 to 1772 and Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1772 until 1803, whe ...

dissolved the Moosham bailiwick in 1790, whereafter the castle decayed. In 1886, the Austrian explorer and patron of the arts

Count Johann Nepomuk Wilczek Count Johann (Hans) Nepomuk Wilczek (german: Hans Graf Wilczek; 7 December 1837 – 27 January 1922) was an Austrian arctic explorer and patron of the arts. He was the main sponsor of the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition in 1872–74. L ...

purchased the ruin and had it restored. Up to today, the complex is private property, though its rooms featuring Wilczek's extensive art collection are accessible to the public.

References

Castles in Salzburg (state) {{Salzburg-geo-stub

History

See also

References