Schloss Wildenhag

Schloss Wildenhag stands on a hill called Schlossberg in the village of Wildenhag, part of the municipality of Straß im Attergau in Upper Austria. The site has been occupied since at least 1379, when it was held by a small knightly family called the Utzinger. Over the centuries it passed through many noble hands, from Erasmus von Gera to the Arnsteiner brothers and the Schmelzing family. By the 18th century the owners changed frequently, and parts of the building were rented out as farmland. In the 19th century a surgeon named Joseph Hamberger lived in what was still habitable of the old house. The present building is the result of several rebuilds. A 17th-century engraving shows a three-storey house with a tower, clock and onion dome, already described as dilapidated in the 1570s. In 1921 the architect Wilhelm Lippa began modernising the structure, followed by Freiherr von Gagern and later Friedrich Mayr. Michael Oswald commissioned a further conversion in 1961. Today the house has two storeys under a mansard roof, a balcony above the entrance and a large dormer window above that. Two small baroque statues stand in front of the gate, recalling the figures in Salzburg’s Zwergerlgarten. A short distance away is the former farm belonging to the estate, still worked independently. The hilltop position gives long views over the Attergau countryside. The building’s modest scale and the quiet surroundings make it a place where the layers of history can be felt without distraction.