Borl Castle was first mentioned in written records in 1255 when the Magyar king Bela IV issued a bill to Friedrich, the Lord of Ptuj, regarding several castles, among which was Anchenstein or Borl.
The Anchensteins were the first known owners of the castle who lived there and had its coat of arms. They died out in 1323. The property passed on to the Lords of Ptuj who themselves died out in 1438.
The castle lies at an important point where, during the Middle Ages and even later, various borders crossed. There are a few strategic advantages to its position: a naturally formed rock prominence on which the castle is built; the river Drava with the traffic going on which had to be controlled as well as the passage across the river.
This position was also the cause of periodical fights for predominance.
Until 1620, the castle was the property of the Herbersteins, and from 1639 on, the Thurns were the owners. Most probably it was during that time that the casstle was adapted to the then living standards, and the arcade corridors were built.
Owners changed, and in 1922 the property was sold to a joint-stock company Borlin which was in the wine and beer business. Until World War II, the owner was Zora Weiss, but in 1941 the Germans established there a transit camp from where people were sent to exile until March 1943. After the war the castle was nationalised and remained uninhabited until 1948 when it was turned into a refugee camp.
Due to unsuitable conditions the camp in the castle did not last long. In 1952 it was renovated and it became a restaurant. The business grew and in 1972 the restaurant turned into a hotel. Unfortunately, reconstruction and renovation works were too often carried out in a reckless way, funds for its complete renovation were never sufficient, and therefore the castle slowly deteriorated. When in 1981 high waters swept away the bridge across the river Drava, the hotel was simply shut down.
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Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).