From the Middle Ages to the present day

From the peasants’ revolt to the wedding castle

The Upper Austrian peasants’ uprising is quashed in 1626 - the same year it starts - with Count Adam Herberstorff exacting bitter revenge. Not only does he force the peasants to rebuild the castle without pay but in 1627 has a second castle – Landschloss Ort - erected on the other side of the bridge to replace the burnt down outbuildings. The governor has the water stockade around the lake castle reinforced with watchtowers. You can still see the remains of the stockade on the aerial view of Seeschloss Ort.

Herberstorff does not enjoy his victory for long, dying in 1629. From the end of the 17th century Ort Castle belongs once more to the Hapsburg emperors, ending up in the possession of Archduke Johann Nepomuk Salvator, Prince of Tuscany. Salvator, as cantankerous as he is unconventional, falls out with Emperor Franz-Joseph I, renounces all his titles and disappears along with his ship in 1890 while attempting to circumnavigate South America. He is declared dead in 1911.

The end of the First World War signals the end of the Hapsburg reign. The castles in Ort now belong to the Republic of Austria. In 1995 the town of Gmunden finally buys back Seeschloss Ort for the equivalent of 4 million euros and spends a further 5 million restoring it. Today it houses a restaurant and museum. The Landschloss is now home to a training centre for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.