Heimatmuseum, ehem. Malteser-Schloss, Ligist

Schloss Ligist stands in the market town of Ligist in western Styria, just north of the village at the foot of the Burgberg hill. Built in the late 18th century as a farm belonging to the nearby castle, it was enlarged between 1783 and 1817 by the Saurau family into a two-storey rectangular building. In 1928 the property passed to the Grand Priory of Bohemia and Austria of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which still occupies most of the upper floors today. The Order opened six ground-floor rooms as a local history museum in 1973. Plain plaster bands mark the division between the floors, and the street front shows eighteen plain window axes. On the courtyard side, stone-arched arcades carry the coats of arms of the Saurau-Teuffenbach family, one of which frames the museum entrance. Above the door a 1600 inscription tablet records an earlier date for the site. Beyond the arcades lies the large farmyard, and the former chapel altar of 1625 and statues of Saint Catherine and Saint Charles Borromeus now stand in the village chapel at Grabenwarth. The building’s quiet lines and the orderly courtyard give a sense of the Maltese Order’s continuing stewardship of this place.