Austria · Restored
Schlaining Castle
Burg Schlaining is a medieval castle in Stadtschlaining in the Austrian state of Burgenland. Today the castle houses the Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution and remains a prominent fortified complex in the town.
Its prime
1400
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1400
What Schlaining Castle looked like in its prime.
A compact fortified complex set above a wooded ravine, dominated by a tall cylindrical stone tower with a steep red-tile conical roof. Thick curtain walls of mixed rubble and dressed stone enclose an inner ward; a squat whitewashed round tower with small windows projects at the entrance. A long multi-arch brick viaduct/bridge crosses the ravine to the gate, and red-tiled roofs and low residential ranges fill the courtyard; timber seating sits in a terraced lower bailey.
Its story
The story of Schlaining Castle.
Schlaining is first recorded in 1271 as castrum Zloynuk, a stronghold of the counts of Güssing commanding the road over the Bernstein hills. After the Güssingers' defeat by King Charles I Robert the castle went to the Kanizsay family, and in 1397 King Sigismund pledged the lordship to Nikolaus Zarka of Pecöl and Georg Tompek.
Emperor Frederick III took Schlaining in 1445 and pledged it to the mercenary captain Andreas Baumkircher, who bought up the surrounding lordships until thirty villages answered to the castle; his feud against the emperor ended with his execution at Graz in 1471. The castle then passed to Franz Batthyány, whose family held it for over 370 years — the last of the line, Lajos Batthyány, first prime minister of Hungary, was executed after the 1848 revolution.
Sold in 1849 to the railway pioneer Franz Schmidt and later run down, the castle was bought in 1957 by the former minister Udo Illig and restored. Since the 1980s it has been the "Peace Castle", seat of the Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution; restoration uncovered frescoes of around 1500 in the tower room painted with Egyptian blue, a pigment surviving at only two other European sites.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1400.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Schlaining Castle — including 1 interior: inner courtyard and service ranges. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Create History
Recreate Schlaining Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1400 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Schlaining Castle.
The families that held Schlaining Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Kanizsay
Held Schlaining from the early 14th century until 1397.
Baumkircher
Held by Andreas Baumkircher, 1445–1471, until his execution at Graz.
Batthyány
Held by the Batthyány family for over 370 years from 1471 to 1849.
