Schloss Wolkersdorf

Schloss Wolkersdorf stands in the town of Wolkersdorf in Lower Austria’s Weinviertel, eight kilometres north-east of Vienna’s city boundary. Built in the 13th century as a castle, it later became a schloss with Renaissance and Baroque wings. The complex is surrounded by a former moat fed by the Rußbach stream and still shows traces of its medieval defences. The castle’s long history includes sieges, plagues and imperial stays. In 1275 Ottokar II of Bohemia besieged it after the Wolkersdorf family refused to support him. Emperor Leopold I’s wife Anna bought the ruin in 1541 and rebuilt it in Renaissance style, adding an ‘Anna-Hof’ farmyard. In 1683 Swedish troops and later Turkish raiders looted the site, yet Emperor Charles VI turned it into a hunting lodge with Baroque façades and stucco ceilings. Visitors today see a partly moated complex with four corner towers and a central courtyard lined with arcades. The west wing holds a grand staircase and the main gate, while the north wing contains exhibition rooms and a music school. Outside, the remains of bastion walls and a landscaped park mark the site’s military past.