Burg Perchtoldsdorf

Perchtoldsdorf, Austria, Austria

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Burg Perchtoldsdorf is a powerful medieval castle complex on the north side of the market square in the town of Perchtoldsdorf in Lower Austria, right at the edge of the Vienna Woods, and one of the few major castles that still stands in the heart of a town rather than remote countryside.

Its origins probably go back before the year 1000, when a chain of fortifications was built on the eastern edge of the Vienna Woods to protect the Babenberg dominion against Hungarian invasions, and the first stone tower castle on the hill was surrounded by a wall, ditch, and palisade and later surrounded by wooden residential buildings for the Babenberg ministerial family known as the “Herren von Perchtoldsdorf”.

In the medieval period the castle was significantly expanded: the massive bergfried (south tower) was built in 1180, and between 1250 and 1270 the three‑storey palas (residential building) and a gate tower with drawbridge were added, and in 1340 under Duke Albert II the whole complex was enlarged and turned into a widow’s residence for several Habsburg duchesses, which brought prosperity to the town and gave the castle its tradition as a “ducal castle”.