Burg Altpernstein (Austria)

The castle Altpernstein is a medieval castle in Micheldorf in Upper Austria in the district of Kirchdorf an der Krems in the Traunviertel. It is situated in the Spornburg with a moat on a slope of its house, Hirschwaldstein.

Around the castle are also 35.88 hectares of landscape protection area (lsg16, 2006)

The castle stands about 400 meters above the Kremstal, at 900 meters above sea level. She is surpassed by a good 200 meters from her house.

The brick-built access bridge and the moat
Since the castle stands on a rocky promontory, it is surrounded on three sides by steeply sloping walls and on the fourth side by a moat. It is only accessible by a brick bridge, which replaced a drawbridge in the 18th century.

The entrance of the castle is the deepest point of the coarse saddle-shaped rock above which the building was erected. From the restaurant terrace, you can see that the rock on the valley side reaches the third floor just below the roof.

The castle was built around 1000 and documented in the years 1160 and 1207. On Pillung von Pernstein (Urk. 1170-1200) - he was ministerial of the Otakare - and his descendants followed in 1222 the Truchsener (Ministerial Heinrich von Grafenstein, 1255: Ulrich von Truchsen), who could convert the previous fief into free self. In 1337, he acquired Eberhard von Walsee. In 1394 Johann I of Liechtenstein was appointed by the then Duke of Austria, Albrecht III. to Hapsburg, to the Burgherren. He fell into disgrace, however, and met his property with his family only as a prisoner. In 1529 the castle was thrown by Christoph Jörger. In 1581, it became the property of Jörger. Among the jugglers there was a great building activity: the long house, which now forms a large part of the complex, was built. In 1607 the marble fountains were made in the courtyard. The Jörger were followers of the Reformation, and they were also responsible for the spread of the Protestant faith. From 1623 the castle was owned by Adam Count von Herberstorff, who was responsible for the events known as the Frankenburger Würfelspiele. After his death in 1629 the Stift Kremsmünster acquired the lands from his widow and is still their owner.

Even after the purchase by Kremsmünster, Pfleger practiced their administrative activities on old stone, only from about 1750 the nurses moved the office to the castle Neupernstein located in the valley. The building, formerly under Burgan, was sold in 1879 and the modest cattle were integrated into the castle. Until the end of the war, Kremsmünsterian foresters lived with their families on the spacious grounds, then moved them to a newly built forester's house near the castle.

The castle is rented by the Catholic Youth Upper Austria from the Kremsmünster monastery and is used as a meeting center. This was the beginning as early as 1946, when the then newly founded Catholic Youth renovated the first rooms of the then completely uninhabitable castle, in order to use them for events such as weekends for male and rural youth weeks for female youngsters. In 1961 the still valid lease agreement between the owner and the diocese of Linz was signed. Since the structure no longer meets the requirements for fire protection and no accessibility is given, this use is terminated and the 99-year lease is prematurely terminated. The last event was a farewell party on Whitsun in 2017.