Greinburg Castle, Grein, Austria

Greinburg Castle was built between 1488 and 1495 by Heinrich and Siegmund Prüschenk with the imperial approval of Emperor Friedrich III. In 1533 Johann Leble (Löbl), acquired the castle. Under him the building received most of its present day form. In 1621 the castle was sold to the Earl Leonhard Helfrich of Meggau, who carried out basic changes. A three storeyed, columned arcade became the main feature for the appearance of the inner courtyard. Furthermore, under Meggau the Sala terrena (so-called stone theatre) was installed. In 1625 the “Rittersaal”, the Hall of Knights, and an adjoining chapel in the south west tower were redecorated.

The Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha have been owners of the Castle only since 1822. The building, which comprises four wings, houses the Coburg Rooms, which are the official rooms of the ducal family, as well as the Upper Austrian shipping museum.

User Reviews

Tom Linhard (11 months ago)
Palace that is still occupied and very well kept. Amazing paintings of the aristocracy that lived there. Nice Austrian dance performances after an evening tour.

Slawomir Rojek (4 years ago)
Great place to visit! A beautiful Castle in a small town, with beautiful architecture and the oldest theater in Austria.

Lynn (5 years ago)
Huge and interesting! It's a steep walk up to this operational castle (the owner "sort of" lives there) but we thought it was worthwhile. The large number of stag hunting trophies is impressive.

Kat Smith (6 years ago)
A gem. I wasn't expecting such cool features. There's an impressive black and white timbered courtyard lined with scores of antlers. The ground floor rooms have beautiful faceted stucco ceilings and an incredible room decorated floor to ceiling with tiny pebbles. Upstairs there's a ship museum with interesting historical ships of the Danube, and a great hall. Definitely worth a visit. Labels are in German but an English leaflet is available.

David Sherwood (6 years ago)
Wonderfully preserved castle. The nobility here are closely related to the kings and queens if England. Two unique features we saw were (1) a room with a very modern art ceiling created in 1491 and (2) a room completely covered in mosaics created sometime in the 1500's. I have attached some photos of these features. All in all, a wonderful place to visit for an afternoon.

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