Schloss Ainwalding

Schloss Ainwalding stands in the village of Ainwalding, part of the municipality of Ungenach in Upper Austria’s Vöcklabruck district. It began as a medieval fortress, first recorded in 1355 when Gottschalk Aboltinger, a knight owing service to Burg Starhemberg, held the site. Over the next century the owners changed several times, passing through the hands of Ulrich, Wernhart, Seyfried, Konrad and Leonhart Ainwalding. By 1467 Emperor Friedrich III had granted the seat to Tibold Aspan and his brother Siegmund Anwaldinger, ending Ainwalding’s long connection with the original family.

The castle was rebuilt in the 17th century after Tobias Nütz von Goisernburg acquired it in 1648 and sold the ruined medieval stronghold to Matthias Adam Ramspeckh. A century later, in 1789, Freiherr Thaddäus von Reischach became owner while also holding nearby Schloss Wolfsegg. A partial fire in 1856 damaged the building, and by 1866 it had passed into farming hands. Under the Reumayr family in 1880 a guesthouse opened on the site, still run today as Gasthof Reumayr.

The surviving structure shows a single-storey wing attached to the old tower base, its onion dome long gone. The former moat and palisade have disappeared, and the once separate farmyard now forms part of the same complex. Inside the guesthouse, sections of original vaulting remain, and a modern chapel was added in 1999 beside the building. The surrounding farmland and tree-lined avenues recall the landscape shown in Georg Matthäus Vischer’s 1674 engraving, giving a sense of continuity across the centuries.