Malteserstöckl, Stroheim

The Malteser Commende stands in Stroheim, a village in Upper Austria’s Eferding district. It began as a 13th-century foundation by the Schaunberg counts, given to the Knights of St John and later the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The entrance still bears their Gothic coats of arms and inscription stones from 1260. After the 15th century the site shrank to a parish, then in 1790 Count Colloredo sold the Maltese estate to Count Starhemberg. Until 1848 it remained a nobleman’s seat called a Freisitz. Today the protected building houses the Stroheimerhof inn, its two-storey structure showing a 16th-century Tramdecke ceiling in the upper floor. Inside, two original monk cells survive from the commandery. The Tramdecke is an elaborate painted timber ceiling praised in art literature for its largely intact Renaissance surface. The inn’s ground floor offers views of the surrounding farmland, linking the building’s medieval past with present-day hospitality.