Burg Taggenbrunn

Taggenbrunn, Austria, Austria

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Burg Taggenbrunn is a hill castle ruin in Carinthia, Austria, located on a strategic hilltop in the municipality of Sankt Georgen am Längsee near St. Veit an der Glan, dominating the village of Taggenbrunn and the surrounding landscape of Mittelkärnten.

First documented in 1142 and explicitly named as a castle (castrum Takenbrunne) in 1157, the fortress was built in the early 12th century by the Archbishopric of Salzburg on the remains of a Celtic‑Roman ring‑wall settlement from the 6th century BC and later expanded around 1500 by Leonhard of Keutschach into a modern fortified complex with a grain store and administrative buildings; it remained in Salzburg and local noble hands until the late 17th century, when it was abandoned and gradually became a ruin, and since 2011 it has been owned by the entrepreneur Alfred Riedl (Jacques Lemans watches), who invested about 108 million euros in a comprehensive renovation that transformed the site into a cultural and hospitality destination.

Today the restored castle houses a boutique hotel with 32 rooms, a gastronomy business and bistro, watch and art exhibitions, and an extensive wine estate with around 45 hectares of vineyards, and it serves as the main venue for the well‑known Taggenbrunner Festspiele, an annual festival of music, theatre and arts that attracts international artists and visitors, while the site remains open to the public in the warmer months and is accessible by car and bus from nearby towns.