Schloss Rollau

Schloss Rollau stands in the Steiermark near the village of Mooskirchen. Once a small fortified building from the 13th century, it was rebuilt in the 16th century as a Renaissance water castle. The complex had a chapel, an entrance tower and corner towers on its three-storey structure. It was originally called the Mierzerhof after its owners. In 1590 Adam and Friedrich Mierzer demolished the old structure and built a new castle on the same site. The castle’s name changed in 1628 when Sebastian Roll acquired it and renamed it Rollau. By 1677 it belonged to Maria Cällia Lodron, later passing to her husband Wolf Raymund von Kellersperg. Around 1730 the estate was linked with the lordship of Groß-Söding. In 1748 the castle was pulled down and its moat filled in. The only surviving image of the water castle appears in the 1681 Topographia Ducatus Stirae, a copperplate engraving by Vischer. The print shows the castle with what may be the nearby Talhof in the background, though that building’s location remains uncertain. Today only traces of the former moat and foundations mark the site where the castle once stood.