Burg Forchtenstein is a castle dating from the late Middle Ages near the municipality of Forchtenstein in northern Burgenland, Austria. In the complex there is the Restaurant At the castle has been assigned the name of "Tresor der Esterházy", safe of the Esterházy, as it contains very precious family objects such as the pieces of the Room of treasures, and collections of pieces coming from spoils of military campaigns .
Burg Forchtenstein History
The origins of this imposing complex date back to the years around 1300, when the counts of Mattersdorf built a new fortification high above the Wulka valley after the destruction of their castle in the current Mattersburg. The Mattersdorf coat of arms still adorns the tombstone of the Gothic vault in the keep, which dominates the complex and is part of the oldest walls of the castle. In the middle of the fifteenth century, the family died in the male line and the castle came for about 170 years in the possession of the Habsburgs, who engaged them to the counts of Weisspriach and Hardegg. During this period, the castle did not undergo significant structural changes.
1622 received Nikolaus Esterházy (1583-1645) from Emperor Ferdinand II, the lords of Forchtenstein and Eisenstadt in charge of the domain of Munkács in the former north-eastern Hungary to the Prince of Transylvania, Gábor Bethlen, as a possession of a pledge. The castle of Forchtenstein, linked to the hereditary title, has already been transferred in his possession hereditary for four years. At the time of Nicola, who held the position of palatine (Hungarian viceroy) from 1625, fell among other things. the expansion of the bastal belt, the construction of the kitchen, the chapel and the new housing areas under the master builders Simone Retacco and Domenico Carlone.
The son of Palatine Nicholas, Paul I (1635-1713) began after the expansion and reconstruction of the Eisenstädter castle with a complete adaptation of the fortress on the Wulkaebene. Forchtenstein Castle experienced its most significant expansion with the extension of the high castle in the second half of the seventeenth century. Murals with political-genealogical contents in the courtyard, decorative and allegorical murals inside, entrance portals with religious sculptures, a baroque equestrian statue depicting Paul I stained in 1687 and a crocodile more than two meters long were the ingredients for power, rank and demonstrate political positioning.
With the death of Prince Paul I Esterhazy in 1713, the purpose of the fortress changed due to historical and political military changes. The castle of Forchtenstein now served as storage for treasures and curiosities of the treasure and from storage of military equipment. In the 1870s, under the master builder Ferdinand Mödlhammer, the roof truss was raised and renovated and the interior was renovated and renovated. The castle continued to be the seat of the general treasury and of the archive and, from the Congress of Vienna, was one of the first museums of the Habsburg Empire. In 1887 the chapel of the baroque castle was restored by Franz Storno in the taste of historicism.
In the XX and the beginning of the XXI century, there were no major renovations or expansions, but very well for the repair and maintenance of the historic vaults of the cellars for contemporary use as event rooms, to create a lookout and for the careful restoration of the masonry and the roof area.