Burg Grub

Austria, Austria

---

Burg Grub is a medieval hilltop castle ruin in the Waldviertel (Forest Quarter) of Lower Austria, located above the small village of Grub near Messern in the municipality of Irnfritz‑Messern, about 60 kilometers north of Vienna.

It was probably built in the 11th century, first mentioned in documents in 1237, and developed over the 13th to 15th centuries with a massive round or polygonal bergfried (fortified tower) about 22 meters high, a palas (residential building), a forecourt, and outer defensive walls that gave it a clear late medieval character.

The castle belonged in turn to the local Grub family, the Truchsessen von Grub, the Matschacher, the Rauber, the Puchheim family (famous for their Protestant stance), and later the Traun and Selb families, before passing to the monastery of Altenburg, and it was severely damaged in 1620 and subsequently abandoned as a residence, becoming a ruin.

In the 1970s the family Hampapa bought the heavily deteriorated ruin to prevent its demolition and gradually restored parts of it with volunteers and under the supervision of the Federal Monuments Office, and since 1997 the partially restored site has been owned by the Heindl family from Vienna, who maintain it as a private residence and partially preserved medieval fortress.