Thierberg Castle

The Thierberg ruin stands on a hill 721 metres above sea level north of Kufstein in Tirol. Built in 1285 by the Freundsberg family as a stronghold, it once commanded the lower Inn valley. After changing hands several times, the castle passed to the Habsburgs in the 15th century and was left to decay once Kufstein and Rattenberg were fortified. The site became a place of pilgrimage after the chapel was moved into the rebuilt hall in 1584. A fire in 1700 destroyed the hall, but the chapel survived and was refitted in late Baroque style. In the 19th century a wayside cross path was laid from the Neuhaus inn, and in 2001 the keep and curtain walls were carefully restored. Visitors find the half-ruined keep, the former palace with the chapel on the ground floor and a small upper chapel used for displaying textiles and nativity figures. Beside it stands Tirol’s last hermitage, still inhabited. The chapel walls are covered with votive tablets and wax offerings, and the high altar holds a painting of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist by Franz Stirz. A gentle path with fourteen stations leads up from the Neuhaus inn, making the ruin an easy walk for families.