Neue Ennsburg, Enns

The Neue Ennsburg in Enns, Austria, was constructed under the authority of the Habsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire.

The castle commonly called the second provincial princely castle has been dated in different ways. It was once ascribed to Emperor Frederick III with a construction year of 1475, but the building itself cannot be placed earlier than about 1510 and may date only to around 1520. For its erection only two existing townhouses were cleared, while two adjacent houses were taken into the new castle’s plan and adapted to its needs.

During the mid‑1500s the complex grew under imperial direction. Around 1550 Emperor Maximilian II acquired the house of the Ennenkel family to enlarge the site. About 1565 the principal buildings, those at Ennsberg 1 and 1a, were remodelled under the master builder Hans von Matz to update the main rooms.

By 1589 the newer castle had fallen into serious disrepair. Archduke Matthias wrote to his brother, Emperor Rudolf II, seeking funds for urgent works. Master builder Christoph Canavale estimated the repairs at 1,866 gulden, reporting that roofing was in very poor condition and that the floors of the imperial chamber, the main hall, the dining chamber and a so‑called dark chamber were completely rotten. As the newer structure deteriorated, the older Ennsburg was sometimes brought back into use, and Emperor Maximilian II granted his imperial councillor Georg Gienger von Rotteneck permission to build what is now Schloss Ennsegg between the old and the newer Ennsburg.

Ownership of the vogtei and later of the property passed through a series of private hands. In 1630 the councillor Hanns Berthold zu Saxenek and his heirs held it; at one point it was pledged to Christoph Helmhart von Weissenwolf, and the Weissenwolf family later acquired the site from Emperor Joseph I. Ferdinand Bonaventure von Weissenwolf sold the property in 1722 to Thaddä Adam von Khauten. The Khauten family, followed by the baronial von Rumerskirch family, were subsequent owners, with Joseph von Rumerskirch recorded as owner in 1816.

A major fire in 1730 and plundering by French forces in 1742 reduced the castle to a few surviving elements. Those remaining parts were incorporated into the fabric of houses and shops in the town, preserving fragments of the former princely residence within later buildings at Ennsberg 1 and along Wiener Straße.