Schloss Arndorf

Schloss Arndorf stands in the village of Pöggstall in Lower Austria, a protected historic building with a late-medieval core. Its outer wall still shows traces of the old moat and rampart that once defended the site. The oldest part is a three-storey rectangular block built in the 14th century by the knight Otto von Aerndorf. The castle was enlarged in the 16th century by the Schauchinger family, who turned it into a Renaissance palace. Later owners included the Kornfail family, who housed a Protestant preacher here in the 16th century. After passing through many hands, it was bought by the Habsburgs in 1823 and later sold again in 1870. Today the complex is surrounded by a continuous wall with a round-arched gateway. The main building has a hook-shaped plan and a striking oriel window on the south corner, topped by a curved pointed roof. Inside, some 17th-century plaster bands survive on the façade, while the upper windows were given neo-Gothic pointed arches in the 19th century.