Burg Lockenhaus is a castle on the hill in the middle of the Burgenland in Austria. It stands in the Günser mountains in the cross-border natural park Geschriebenstein-Írottkő on the outskirts of the Lockenhaus village on a rocky ledge on the Günsbach and thus belongs to the type of mountain castle. Roman and Gothic architectural styles, frescoes, an underground sanctuary, the Great Hall, the crypt and other elaborate structures show the sense of highly developed art and the rich history of the castle.
Burg Lockenhaus History
The first documentary mention of Burg Lockenhaus dates back to 1242. It was built around 1200 and initially bore the name "Leuca". The oldest parts are the keep and the walls of Kernburg. The chapel tower and the two-nave Gothic portico of the Sala dei Cavalieri are slightly younger. The jambs of the castle niches are decorated with fragments of frescoes from the 13th century. These are the oldest frescoes of a military or secular building in Burgenland.
From 1270 to 1337 the counts of Güssing (Johann I. von Héder) were named owners. Between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries it belonged to the Kanizsay (1390-1535) and Nádasdy (1535-1672) families. After the killing of Francis III. Nádasdy was mortgaged by the castle to Nicholas Draskovich. In 1676 it became the property of the Esterházy family, who remained the lords of the castle until 1968.
In 1968, Paul Anton Keller and his wife acquired the castle, which was then in very poor condition. Using all their private wealth, the family began their renewal, which was continued after the death of Paul Anton Keller in 1976 by Prof. Paul Anton Keller Foundation Castle Lockenhaus. Altogether from eleven million Austrian shillings have been invested since 1968 in the renovation of buildings.