Mittersill Castle

Schloss Mittersill is a medieval castle on a rocky spur 140 metres above the Salzach valley in Mittersill, Pinzgau. The building follows a horseshoe plan with the open side facing east and a thick wall to the south. It was first mentioned in the 12th century when the Counts of Lechsgemünd made it their family seat. The castle controlled traffic through the Felber valley and over the Pass Thurn. From the 13th century it served as the residence of the Archbishop of Salzburg and housed the regional court for nearly six centuries. The castle’s history includes witch trials in the 16th and 17th centuries and damage from the Peasants’ War in 1525. After a fire in 1537 it was rebuilt with new defensive features, including two turrets on the west side. The southern turret, known as the Witches’ Tower, contains a small chapel on its upper floor. Between 1935 and 1967 the castle enjoyed a glamorous era under Baron Hubert von Pantz, hosting royalty and Hollywood stars. During the Second World War it became an institute for Inner Asian research and briefly a sub-camp of Mauthausen. Today the castle is a hotel with 43 rooms and 10 suites, open to the public year-round. A restaurant occupies part of the ground floor, and the building still shows traces of its varied past. Visitors walk through rooms that once held court sessions and later accommodated guests like Clark Gable and Queen Juliana. The surrounding valley and the Salzach river remain visible from the terraces, linking the castle to the landscape it has watched for centuries.