Schloss Bodendorf

Schloss Bodendorf once stood in the small village of Bodendorf, on gently sloping ground beside the Great Gusen river in Upper Austria. The original building and its large farmyard lay in the valley at 292 metres above sea level, five hundred metres from the river’s western bank. A nearby country house called Schloss Breitenbruck and the ruined castle of Burg Wolfsbach were its closest neighbours. The main palace no longer exists, though parts of the old farm remain. The estate passed through many noble hands from the late 13th century onwards. Records from 1270 mention a local administrator, and by 1284 Ulrich and Konrad von Kapellen held the land. In 1314 it became a noble residence under Rueger der Pernauer, and later owners included the Potendorf and Flußhart families. After the Flußharts were forced to leave for their Protestant beliefs in 1635, the Sprinzenstein family took over. The Risenfels and Thürheim families followed, and in 1801 the seat moved to Hagenberg, leaving Bodendorf to decay. The palace was pulled down in 1805 and the farm passed to the Faltlhansl family in 1884. Today the farmyard forms a modern farm, with a 16th-century gateway and an old window still in place. A barrel-vaulted room survives inside one wing, and the stones of a former wine cellar have been reused for a pavilion. A single well from the old palace yard still supplies water to the farm. Nearby, the former printing works is now called the Schloss Taverne, and the old tavern building has been completely rebuilt.