Schloss Pottschach

Schloss Pottschach stands in the village of Pottschach in Lower Austria. It is a Renaissance water castle built on the site of an earlier medieval fortress. The parish church and the castle together form a fortified complex. The castle has remained in private hands since the 19th century. It cannot be visited by the public.

The castle’s history begins with a water fortress mentioned in 1134. Over the centuries it passed through many noble families, including the Kranichbergs and the Ursenbecks. In 1539 Bernhard Ursenbeck demolished the old structure and built a new Renaissance water castle. The Liechtenstein family acquired it in the 1830s and altered its defences. The Figdor family restored the building in the late 19th century.

The castle is a rectangular three-storey building with corner turrets on the top floor. Its thick walls contain spy windows and musket slits. A defensive wall and four towers surround three sides of the main building. The moats were filled in during the 19th century. The fortress-like appearance remains clearly visible in the surviving architecture.