Burgruine Schwarzenbach

Burgruine Schwarzenbach stands above the Schwarzenbach valley in the municipality of Schwarzenbach, Austria. The site was established in the medieval period, likely about the turn of the 13th century, and first appears in documents of 1254 as castrum Suarchumpah when the place was granted to the Kingdom of Hungary in a settlement between King Béla IV and King Ottokar II of Bohemia.

In September 1337 a Hungarian force under Leustachius, ispán of Eisenburg and Ödenburg, besieged the castle and had taken it by 4 October 1337; Leustachius was named castellan. The 1337 Peace of Pressburg envisaged an exchange of Schwarzenbach for Anchenstein, but the castle remained outside Austrian control until a later treaty, commonly dated to 1362 as the Peace of Ofen, transferred it to Austria.

In the early 1500s a chapel was built in the courtyard. Before the end of that century the complex was substantially rebuilt into a residential palace, a programme that retained the medieval foundation walls. The estate was purchased in 1680 by Count Pál I Esterházy de Galántha (created prince in 1687) and thereafter remained with the princely Forchtenstein branch. Around 1800 the site ceased to function as the Esterházy administrative seat and fell into decay.

Concerns about falling masonry led the local municipality to seek refurbishment in 2014; the Federal Monuments Office authorised a partial demolition after stones began to fall toward the valley. The Esterházy Foundation proposed a land swap that the municipality declined, and in 2016 a wall with a failing arch was removed. The ruin is recorded as a protected historical monument.