Schloss Wildberg

Schloss Wildberg stands high above the Taffa valley in the Lower Austrian village of Irnfritz-Messern, northwest of Horn. Once a medieval fortress called Wiltperch, it was first mentioned in the 12th century and passed through the hands of local lords before becoming a Habsburg fief in the 13th century. The Puchheim family took possession in 1432 and transformed it into a Renaissance palace, adding a printing works for Protestant tracts in the late 16th century. After the Counter-Reformation the estate was seized by the Traun family and later owned by Altenburg Abbey until recent private ownership. The site retains parts of its medieval core beneath later Renaissance facades. Visitors can still see the great hall, the smoke kitchen and the old forge, all preserved during 16th- and 17th-century alterations. The Puchheims’ printing press produced influential works such as Johann Tettelbach’s 1586 treatise on Protestant doctrine, linking Wildberg to the Horner Bund. The building’s red-and-white heraldic shield, once used by the counts of Hohenburg-Wildberg, may have inspired the colours later adopted by the Babenbergs and Habsburgs. The complex stretches across a wide, partly ruined structure that was partly restored in the 20th century. Though not open to the public, its external walls and surviving interiors give a sense of its layered history. The surrounding landscape of rolling hills and the Taffa valley adds to the quiet, elevated setting of this former stronghold.