Burg Weikertschlag

Burg Weikertschlag stands in Weikertschlag an der Thaya, Austria. The original builders are not recorded and the site belongs to the medieval period. The earliest documentary trace appears in 1178, when two holders, Albero and Wichart, are named in a record dealing with tithes owed to the monasteries at Geras and Pernegg. The exact year when the castle was erected is not recorded, but it was an established fortified place by the late twelfth century.

After 1232 the settlement and the castle passed into the hands of the Babenberg dynasty. When the Babenberg line died out, King Ottokar II Přemysl asserted a claim to the site against Rudolf of Habsburg, seeking to treat the castle as royal property; that claim was not upheld.

In 1404 the stronghold was occupied by Hynek of Kunštát, Ulrich of Neuhaus and Albert of Vöttau. In response, Dukes Wilhelm and Albrecht laid siege and destroyed the castle; some accounts alternatively place the successful siege in 1399. The structure was not returned to service after this defeat. Over time stone from the ruined buildings was removed and used in other construction, so very little of the former fortress survived above ground.

A chapel dedicated to Saint Pankratius stood between the castle and the surviving tower remains. That chapel was closed and taken down in 1784 during the religious reforms of Emperor Joseph II. Its bell, cast in 1723 in Krems an der Donau, was later recovered from the Moravian Thaya river, kept for a period in the local parish house, subsequently used in the village of Oberndorf, and ultimately handed over during the First World War.