Schloss Pragtal

Schloss Pragtal was a country manor in the village of Pragtal, part of the Altenburg cadastral area in Windhaag bei Perg, Upper Austria. Built in 1564 by Andreas von Prag, it stood on gentle farmland beside the Pragtalbach stream. The manor consisted of two parts: the main building on a low ridge and a farmstead in the valley below, surrounded by gardens, fields and vineyards. The site matters because it shows how noble families reshaped the land in the 16th century. Andreas von Prag chose the spot for its fertile soils and water supply. After his death the estate passed to his sons, then to creditors and finally to Johann Joachim Enzmilner. His daughter Eva Magdalena Enzmilner, first prioress of the nearby Dominican convent, demolished both Pragtal and her father’s Windhaag castle in 1680 to build the convent. Today only faint traces remain. The main building’s site is now the Schanzbauergut farm, where parts of the south-west tower and a 1564 granite well frame survive. Nearby stands the Meiergut Pragthallhof on the old farmstead, once home to a brick kiln that produced 10 000 tiles at a time. A low polygonal earthwork still marks the outline of the vanished manor, linking the present farmhouses to the vanished estate of Andreas von Prag.