Passailer Hofhaus

The Passailer Hofhaus stands in the centre of Passail, a small market town in the hills of the Steiermark. Built in 1420 as a manor house for the Stubenberg family, it later housed a nail forge powered by the Raab river that still flows past its long side and rear. In the 16th century the building passed into the hands of the townspeople, and in 1726 it was enlarged.

Its most striking phase came in the 19th century when it served as a poorhouse and hostel for travellers. After the municipality took ownership in 1913, a thorough restoration in 1980 turned the building into the Passailer Library, which opened the same year.

Inside, visitors find a calm reading room on the ground floor, while the upper floor preserves original beams and wide floorboards from the 1726 expansion. The river’s former power channel can still be seen beneath a small grille in the courtyard wall. The library’s shelves hold local history books and quiet corners for study, all within walls that have sheltered nail-makers, the poor and now readers for more than six centuries.