Rothenburg (Graz)

The Ansitz Rothenburg is a small castle-like manor in Graz, the capital of Styria. It stands at the crossing of Bergstraße and Annaweg in the 14th district, Eggenberg. The site began as a farm in the 14th century and only became a proper residence around 1579. Over the centuries it passed through many hands, from the Abbey of Rein to the Ortenhofens and later the Leiningen-Westerburg family. Each owner left its mark, with major changes in 1916 and again in 1973 when the roof was rebuilt. The present building is a two-storey, L-shaped house with a hipped roof and smooth red-painted walls. Its southern wing still shows 17th-century gable ends and a small polygonal oriel from the same period. Inside, heavy ground-floor walls measure between 80 and 85 centimetres thick. Wooden ceilings with moulded beams run through several rooms, and on the garden side a two-storey colonnade was added in 1916. Wrought-iron window guards from the 17th and 18th centuries survive in place. Visitors walk past the red façade and through the arched colonnade into the courtyard. The southern gable and oriel give a sense of the 17th-century layout, while the colonnade frames views of the garden side. Inside, the thick walls and wooden ceilings hint at the building’s long history. The site remains quiet, set back from busy streets yet easy to reach in Eggenberg.