Burg Raabs an der Thaya

Austria, Austria

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Burg Raabs an der Thaya is one of the oldest and most important stone castles in Austria, located on a long rocky ridge high above the town of Raabs an der Thaya in Lower Austria, at the confluence of the German Thaya and the Moravian Thaya near the Czech border, and it is first mentioned in documents around 1100 as castrum Rakouz.

The castle was probably founded around the year 1000 as the seat of a high noble family, in the 1070s it was given as a royal gift to the Babenberg dynasty, and from the 11th to 13th century the castle and settlement formed the centre of a “Königsbezirk” (king’s district) that developed into a county directly under the German Empire, making the site a major strategic fortress on the northern frontier of the Austrian lands.

Over the centuries it was held by various noble families, including the Puchheim family for more than three centuries, and it served as a royal administrative and defence point; its name “Rakouz” (Greek: Rakousko) later became the Slavic and Czech name for Austria (“Rakousko”), so the castle is directly linked to the very name of the country.

Today the castle is a long, imposing hill fortress with massive towers, walls, vaulted rooms, a 40‑meter‑deep well, Gothic frescoes, and a castle chapel, and although it is privately owned and still inhabited, it hosts rotating art and cultural exhibitions and is also the headquarters of the research and publishing institute Bibliothek der Provinz.