Schlossfestspiele Piber

In the year 1000, Margrave Adalbero von Eppenstein began to colonize the area around Piber, whose land had previously been occupied by Emperor Otto III. had received. On the site of today's castle a fortified courtyard was built around 1020, which consisted of a Festem house with walls and a moat. The court and the surrounding land came in 1103 from Duke Henry III. as equipment for the new St. Lambrecht Abbey. The pen had the estate run by servants who soon called themselves after the court, so in 1145 he was called an Otto von Piber. The Archbishop of Salzburg Eberhard von Regensberg handed over to the estate together with the parish in 1219 the diocese of Seckau, which led to severe quarrels with the Abbey of St. Lambrecht, who settled only in 1414 in favor of the monastery. The former Archbishop of Salzburg Ulrich von Seckau spent the last ten years before his death in 1268 in Pieber. In the period between the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, various nobles used Pieber as rich sinecure. One of these nobles was Konrad von Wallsee, who was known to be very cruel and was killed by angry peasants.

After the resolution of the disputes between the diocese of Seckau and the monastery of Lambrecht with a decision of the duke Ernst of the Iron and of the pope in favor of the monastery in 1414 in the property a court was built as provost. The collegiate administration for Western Styria was housed in the court of this provost. The bishop of Seckau renounced despite the decision taken only in 1492 on Piber. He came to a new dispute between the Lambrecht pivot and the Holleneggern, which was resolved only in the seventeenth century. Moreover, in the 16th century there were always problems between Piber and the monastery of St. Lambrecht, since the rule was ceded to secular nobles and these were mostly Protestants. For example, in 1586 the castle was besieged by Wolf von Saurau, Georg Bernhard von Herberstein and Christof Georg von Khollenburg with a small force, thus destroying the surrounding government camps. Because of these problems, the pivot decided in 1596 to manage the rule itself and Hans Stübich used as an administrator.

The current castle was built between 1696 and 1728, probably according to the plans of Domenico Sciassia, as a summer refuge for the abbots and monks of Lambrecht abbey. After the Lambrecht brooch was abandoned in 1786, Piber arrived at the state religious fund, before he returned in 1792 to a change of ownership. In 1789 a stable was built for military horses in the castle. In 1952, the Lipizzaners returned to Piber, where the stables administration was housed in the castle. In 1967 the castle was restored. In 2003, Schloss Piber hosted part of the Styrian provincial exhibition "Mythos Pferd". Furthermore, the castle also serves as a venue for concerts and space for cultural exhibitions.