Schloss Pux

Schloss Pux stands in the village of Pux, part of the municipality of Teufenbach-Katsch in the Murau district of Styria. It replaces an earlier castle that once stood beside the surviving Schlosskapelle Pux. The chapel still stands near the new building, a reminder of the site’s long history. The present Schloss Pux was built in 1911 from rough stone and ashlar, after the old castle burned down on Christmas night in 1779. Members of the Pranckh family owned the estate and built a manor house at the foot of Puxberg while the new castle was constructed. Hans von Pranckh lived there from 1921 until 1945 and served as a political leader during the Steirischer Heimatschutz. His nephew Georg Pranckh was born in the castle in 1926 and later became a national politician. The Schlosskapelle is dedicated to St Giles and belongs to the Murau deanery. Its late Romanesque nave ends in a narrower choir with a sacristy marked 1594. The roof carries a small Gothic belfry. Inside, 13th-century frescoes of Christ in glory, evangelists and saints were uncovered in 1912 and conserved in 1957. The 1676 altar has a painted frontal from about 1730, and the 1693 organ shows figures of Peter and Paul, Cecilia and King David. A 1616 memorial shield and a 1591 tombstone with relief figures of kneeling mourners and caryatids recall earlier owners.