Burgstall Schaunberg

The Burgstall Schaunberg stands on a projecting spur of land above the Danube in Upper Austria. It was a non-masonry earthwork built between 1380 and 1386 to control river traffic alongside the opposite castle of Neuhaus. The site’s defences included two rock-cut neck ditches and an outer rampart, arranged to block movement along an old track from the Gasthaus Kaiser to Gschwendt. The unfinished fortification sparked the second Schaunberger Feud when local lords resisted Habsburg authority. After defeat, Heinrich von Schaunberg signed a treaty on 4 September 1386 agreeing to halt construction. Whether the order was obeyed remains unproven, leaving the earthworks as silent witnesses to a brief power struggle. Today the hollows of both neck ditches are still visible, though the outer trench was partly damaged by road widening. Inside the inner ditch a curious mound may be a rarely attested ‘stolperwall’ designed to trip attackers. The site holds historical importance yet receives no official protection, standing open on the hillside above the Danube.