Schloss Frein

Frein Castle stands on a gentle rise in the Frankenburg am Hausruck district of Upper Austria. The building is a three-storey rectangular structure with a steep hipped roof, dating mainly from the 16th and 17th centuries. A filled-in moat once surrounded the castle on three sides, and a water-filled moat remains at the rear. The main entrance is marked by a granite archway with a wrought-iron balcony above it. Reddish window frames and decorative flaps articulate the pale facade, and a small turret with a clock crowns the gate axis. The castle’s long history includes ownership by local nobles and imperial grants in the 15th and 16th centuries. In the 17th century it passed to the Khevenhüller family, then became an estate centre for the Schaupp brewing dynasty. After 1945 it housed refugees and a village school for a few years. In 2007 the owner provided free accommodation for a refugee family, drawing public attention. Recent renovation created eight family apartments and four offices while preserving the structure’s heritage character. Inside, visitors find a modernised interior arranged around the original entrance hall and staircase. The roof truss was carefully repaired to protect a large bat colony that summers in the attic. Between six hundred and eight hundred mouse-eared bats raise their young here, making it one of the largest roosts in Upper Austria. Outside, the castle overlooks rolling farmland near the Hausruck ridge, with the filled moat now forming a landscaped terrace.