wilbau: Castle Ruins Prandegg

Let's take a short trip into medieval times. The spooky knight Lord P. will guide us. The photos are made by me in 1987 and show the state of the Prandegg (in Northern Upper Austria) ruins of that time.

Walking through the woods we find some kind of ruin.

Slowly we approach this place, looks kind of rotten.

We pass by stonewalls and ...

... come closer to the ruin.

We find an entrance and ...

... here we are.
We walk a bit further, the high stone walls look threatening.

From the former chapel we take some sights
The people who built this thing carved into the hard stone ('Granit').

They integrated stones into their concept and building of the castle.

All wooden floors and roofs are missing. In our imagination we can still see the people being busy in these rooms. Hard winters here in this area. The men are out in the woods and wilderness hunting and doing the hard work around the castle. Women care for the children and the households and are also productive in spinning and weaving.

We come closer to the tower, there are newly made wooden stairs in it so we can go up and have a view on the castle from above.

This castle was built in medieval times, in the 13th century. Generations lived in it till the castle was left by all and left to decay in the 18th century.

Owners were: Babenberger, Prantner, Kapeller, Tanpekken, Dachsperger, Liechtensteiner, Walchen, Jörger, Starhemberger, Salzburger, Dietrichsteiner and Sachsen- Coburg Gotha.

The name 'Prandegg' probably derives from the word 'Prantner'. The German word 'Brand' means 'Feuer' (fire). The 'Prantners' ('Burners' or maybe 'Branders' or 'Torcherers') were people that 'cultivated' the land by first destroying woods with fire.

Here you have an overview of the probable construction.
1 Castle gate
2 Storage rooms
3 Donjon, Tower
4 Residential buildings
5 Areas for economic purposes
6 Chapel

Plenty of woods still surround the castle.

Woods in which the former Lords found something worthwile to hunt. Boars (wild pigs) for example.

If you liked this post you might also like the following ones:
Old Tower RudolfsTurm
and
'Haunted House' :)

And if you like to get a taste of some medieval music you might like this video of ' Wulf '.
Bagpipes and drums.