Schloss Stainz is a former

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

Stainz Stainz is a municipality in the district of Deutschlandsberg in the Austrian state of Styria. A notable building there is Schloss Stainz, a former monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters an ...

, located in the

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 ...

n state of Styria. Today, the Baroque complex belongs to the Counts of Meran and hosts two museum collections from the Universal Museum Joanneum. __TOC__

History

Stainz Priory (german: Stift Stainz) was a monastery founded by the

Augustinian Canons Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by ...

in 1229, when Leutold I von Wildon,

lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

of Stainz, allowed a small church with a monastery attached to be established on the mountain where his castle stood. The monastery was settled by

canons regular Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by ...

from Seckau Priory. The priory experienced its heyday during the early 16th century under provost Jakob Roselenz (1596–1629), under whom the community was reorganised and the church, previously neglected, was enlarged. The interior was later refurbished in the Baroque style, with extensive stucco decoration. The church organ counts among the largest and most melodious in Styria and was restored in 1980. The monastery was dissolved in 1785 as part of the rationalist reforms of the

Emperor Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 un ...

. The church however remained in use. In 1840, Archduke Johann, son of

Emperor Leopold II Leopold II (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; 5 May 1747 – 1 March 1792) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria from 1790 to 1792, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son ...

and an avid hunter, purchased the building complex from the town for the sum of 40,000

guilder Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' " gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Emp ...

s for use as a hunting lodge, known thereafter as

Schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cognate ...

Stainz. Since his death in 1859, it has remained in the family estate of his descendants, the Counts of Meran.

Present day

Today, besides offering gardens and rooms to rent for engagements, the castle houses two collections from the Universal Museum Joanneum. On 16 September 2006, the ''Steirisches Jagdmuseum'' ("Styrian Hunting Museum") was opened. The interdisciplinary approach of this collection combines contemporary technology with historic equipment, weapons and specimens to explore the historical, sociological and anthropological, as well as the philosophical and ethical, phenomena of the human practice of hunting, in addition to wildlife ecology. In 2009, the ''Landwirtschaftsmuseum'' ("Museum of Agriculture and Forestry") also opened, displaying collections of rural Styrian

folk culture Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...

. The main focus of the exhibition is on the agricultural implements and the household effects of the Styrian countryside from the Stone Age to the present. The exhibition displays objects related to the different branches of agriculture and husbandry, and it offers a fitting companion to the Hunting Museum. In addition to the two permanent exhibitions of the Joanneum, areas of the castle, for example the courtyard, the cellar, the arcades and the terrace, are also rented out for private events.

External links

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Schloss Stainz

Joanneum Museum of Hunting

Joanneum Museum of Agriculture and Forestry
{{Authority control Palaces in Austria Museums in Styria Hunting museums Agriculture museums in Austria History museums in Austria Hunting in Austria