Schloss Eberwein

Schloss Leifling, also called Schloss Eberwein, stands near the village of Neuhaus in Carinthia, just 300 metres from the Slovenian border. First mentioned in 1571 as a ducal fief of Bleiburg, it probably began as a small medieval seat in the 15th century. The present three-storey building keeps its original rectangular core from the late 1500s. In the early 1700s the owners enlarged and refashioned it in the Baroque style, giving it a tall hipped roof and dressed ground floor. Inside, the upper floors show pilastered walls and fine stucco decoration of leafy scrollwork made around 1735–40. Above the entrance hall a painted ceiling displays the heraldic shields of the Stampfer, Thurn and Mohrenschildt families. The house passed from the Jöchlinger family to the Stampfer counts of Walchenberg in the mid-18th century. The castle is set in a park that leads into a small wildlife enclosure. Its plain exterior conceals richly ornamented rooms, while the surrounding grounds offer quiet walks and distant views toward the Karawanken mountains.