Schloss Pernegg

Schloss Pernegg stands beside the Mur in the Murtal valley between Bruck an der Mur and Frohnleiten. It is a three-storey Renaissance palace built on a slope above the river. The square building has four wings around an inner courtyard, with a rustic stone portal on the north side. The palace was begun in 1578 by Gallus von Racknitz, grandson of Magdalena von Pernegg. He employed an Italian master from the school of Domenico dell’Allio, who also designed Graz’s Landhaushof. Work lasted four years and finished in 1582. After Gallus’s death in 1588 the estate passed through several noble families, including the Scottish Leslies who owned it for more than a century and a half. In 1864 Fürstin Julie von Öttingen-Wallerstein bought the property and enlarged her forest and hunting lands. Since 2006 the Pongratz-Lippitt Foundation has cared for the palace. Inside, the three-storey arcade courtyard shows Renaissance proportions and later baroque touches. The west wing contains the Bishop’s Chamber, said to have once held a bishop during the Reformation. Painted ceilings from the 1780s and wall murals in rococo style decorate the upper floors. On the ground floor a historic courtroom and a toll table from 1749 recall the estate’s judicial past. The north wing chapel holds a glass Madonna and a ceiling vaulted in the style of the early 18th century.