Hohenaschau Castle

Schloss Hohenaschau rises on a fifty-metre rock ridge above the Prien valley near the Bavarian-Tyrolean border. Built in the late 12th century as a medieval ring-burg, it served for seven centuries as the seat of powerful noble dynasties. After the last ruling family died out in the mid-19th century, the estate passed through several hands until industrialist Theodor Freiherr von Cramer-Klett bought it and turned it into a private residence for his family. The castle’s historic core forms a continuous two- to three-storey ring of buildings from different ages. A tall tower stands at the western end beside the inner gate and a mounted staircase to the upper courtyard. In front of this inner ring lies a fortified outer ward with a small chapel, the priest’s house, two rounded bastions and an outer gate. The northern and southern flanks of the rock are built right to the edge of steep drops, while the western slope, less sheer, carries the approach road and the old outer defences. Inside, the north wing’s upper floor holds a dark-wood Baroque festival hall made of two linked rooms, with dining spaces below for the lord’s household. The south wing’s upper floor contains the three-room ‘ancestral hall’, lined with life-size statues. Below are the servants’ ‘Gothic chambers’. Early in the 20th century a side wing called the ‘birdhouse’ was added for the last private owners, and a two-storey guest tract with a low round tower was built at the foot of the rock. A castle mountain railway now climbs from the valley to the basement of the guest tract. The Priental Museum, housed in the priest’s house and two rooms of the ring-burg, displays original pieces such as two cannons, mortars and the Hohenaschau execution sword.