Schloss Rohrau

Schloss Rohrau

Facade (detail)

Schloss Rohrau is a castle in the town of Rohrau in Lower Austria bordering on Burgenland. The building houses the art collection of the counts of Harrach.

Medieval castle and "Herrschaft" or dominion

In the 12th Century he Marquis of Cham and Vohburg held the area around Rohrau. Dietrich de Rorow was first mentioned in 1240 as living in the Haus Liechtenstein. His line died out in 1278 with Dietrich III. His daughter Diemut married Leutold I. von Stadeck († 1292/95). After the death of the last Johann Stadeck in1399, Duke Wilhelm wanted to give it to his brother Ernst dem Eisernen but heiress Guta married Hermann II, Count of Celje and received it from King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia as a gift. In 1402 Rohrau came into the hands of Ulrich, son of Hugo von Montfort-Pfannberg, who inherited from Guta. In 1404 King Ruprecht gave the Montforts the castle and dominion, which they owned for 120 years.

The Harrach Family

The Harrach family first appeared in Südböhmen in the 13th century, later in Mühlviertel, including the wealthy Freistadt . The Harrachs owned Styria and Carinthia at one time, but their main interests shifted to Vienna (see Palais Harrach) and Lower Austria.

Leonhard III. von Harrach inherited the castle and in 1524 during the Counter-Reformation his son Leonhard IV. took the side of the Catholics. He was granted nobility in1552 and in 1584 the Order of the Golden Fleece. In 1586 he retired after 55 years of service to the court of Vienna, and devoted himself to the castle Rohrau. He died in 1590 and was buried in the Augustinian Church, Vienna.

In 1593 the Türken stormed the castle. The damage was repaired 1599-1605 and is documented in the family archive.

Art collection

View of Schloss Rohrau (c. 1800)

View of the Gemäldegalerie der Harrach´schen Familiensammlung

The castle houses the Graf Harrach’sche Familiensammlung, one of the largest private collections in Austria. In April 2006 thieves broke in and stole 16 paintings by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens and Pieter Snayers.

The castle and its collection now belong by inheritance to the counts of Waldburg-Zeil.

Literature

• Ulrich Graf von und zu Arco-Zinneberg, Schloss Rohrau - Graf Harrach'sche Familiensammlung, Kleiner Kunstführer, Verlag Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg; 4., neu bearbeitete Auflage 2012.
• Helmuth Furch, Das Gräflich Harrachsche Familienarchiv, Schloss Rohrau, Antonius Tencalla, Steinmetz im kayßerischen Steinbruch am Leyttaberg, in Mitteilungen des Museums- und Kulturvereines Kaisersteinbruch, Nr. 37, S 7-13, Juni 1995.
• Wolfgang Westerhoff, Prangersäulen in Österreich, Verlag NÖ-Pressehaus, 1994.

External links

• Entry about Schloss Rohrau at Burgen-Austria (Castles Austria)
• Rohrau Harrach
• Schloss Rohrau in Austria-Forum (in German) (local history lexicon)
• Entry about Schloss Rohrau in the database Gedächtnis des Landes on the history of the state of Lower Austria (Lower Austria Museum)Museum Niederösterreich)
• Helmuth Furch 1995, Gräfl. Harrachsches Archiv und der Kaiser-Steinbruch