Plankenwarth Castle or Plankenwarth Castle is a hill fort turned into a castle in Sankt Oswald near Plankenwarth in Styria. Its history can be demonstrated until the 13th century. A little further down, on the northern slope of the castle hill of the present castle is the Ludwigsburg, which was built by Ludwig Stürgkh in the 16th century and later served as a square and courtyard.
Schloss Plankenwarth History
The castle is mentioned for the first time on February 24, 1265 in a document. Probably it was a free property of the masters of Plankenwarth, who served as the ministerial sovereign princes and from 1179 are detectable. In the 14th century, the bridge guardians were replaced by their correlates Timmersdorf and Pranckh as lords of the castle. Around the year 1430, the castle was inherited by the lords of Ungnad, who from 1456 were authorized to wear the coat of arms of the Plankenwarther, in the meantime extinguished. The lords of Ungnad had the estate run by paid caretakers. In 1532 Andre von Ungnad sold the neglected castle to the merchant of Graz Georg Stürgkh of the von Stürgkh family. Georg's son, Ludwig, was disinherited and therefore, with the consent of his brothers, he had his Ludwigsburg, which took its name, just below the present castle. The sons of Ludwigs had to sell Ludwigsburg because of high debts with his brother Christof after his death. Later it served as a square and courtyard.
Towards the end of the 16th century, a chalk fire was established in the castle. In 1699 the estate passed to Johann Georg Graf Saurau, who was related to the Stürgkh family. In the following years, the estate often changed hands before arriving in 1739 in the possession of Johann Seifried von Herberstein. Under his brother Karl Leopold, the castle was enlarged in 1754 into a Baroque castle. From 1791 to 1826, the castle was again owned by the Stürgkh family. Again there were frequent changes of ownership, it was the Protestant Emilie Sarah Engelbronner d'Aubigny, who had acquired from her marriage to the British colonel the title of "General", until her death in 1849, master of the castle. She was buried on the nearby Brennkogel, which has since been called the Generalkogel. Ignaz von Scarpatetti acquired the ruined castle in 1913. He had the property completely renovated and modernized to use it until 1954 as a sanatorium. During the Second World War, parts of Ludwigsburg collapsed and had to be restored. Ludwigsburg then received a new foundation in 1956. Since 1981, the castle has been privately owned.