Schloss Ernstbrunn

The castle occupies a northward slope above the village and presents an elongated plan of successive courtyards rising one behind the other. A medieval core from the 12th–13th centuries sits on a limestone rock spur that is exposed on three sides and surrounds the innermost courtyard; this core is laid out as a stretched octagon. Successive building campaigns in the Late Renaissance, Baroque and Classicist periods were grafted onto that medieval nucleus, producing a complex of discrete building groups arranged around four courtyards.

A robust outer curtain wall reaches up to three metres in thickness and in the southeast is strengthened by a square keep (tall defensive tower). The keep originally rose three storeys and received an additional storey during work in the 16th or 17th century. The principal outer front is a sixteen‑axis south façade that closes the outer ward; the outer ward was remodelled in a Baroque manner between 1672 and 1677, a fact proclaimed by the Sinzendorf coat of arms set above the round‑arched gate.

The courts contain distinct functional groups. The second court includes a clock tower and a Protestant chapel dated to about 1863. The third court contains the upper palace, known as the Hochschloss (upper palace). The fourth court houses a Catholic chapel, a knights’ hall and the keep. Above the main outer portal a compound coat of arms displays the Sinzendorf shield bearing a chief that signifies the hereditary office of cupbearer for lands north of the Enns, the cup device appearing between the helmet’s horns. That central shield is flanked by two smaller escutcheons, the right showing the Burgraviate of Rheineck (sometimes mislabelled as County Rieneck) and the left representing von Lappitz, reflecting a 1648-approved union of arms.

In front of the gate stands an early Baroque fountain in stone with a hexagonal basin and a central shaft that bears heraldic decoration. Sixteen coats of arms decorate the fountain: four shields on the shaft below the basin and twelve pairs set around the rim. These arms form a genealogical presentation for Rudolf Graf von Sinzendorf and his wife Eva Susanna Gräfin von Zinzendorf and Pottendorf. The shaft shows the shields of their direct great‑grandparents: Leonhard von Sinzendorf; Anna von Harrach; Alexander von Zinzendorf and Pottendorf; and Susanna von Volkra. The basin carries the six remaining great‑grandparent pairs, among them Hans Rueber Freiherr zu Pichsendorf with Maria Anna Freiin von Welsperg, and David von Trauttmansdorff with Amalie Kuzal von Lappitz, as well as other named noble couples.

Surrounding the main buildings are service ranges and farm structures, including a substantial three‑storey granary (Schüttkasten). The castle garden was laid out in the second half of the 17th century under the Sinzendorf patronage and was reshaped in 1775 into a Baroque‑classical ensemble. Surviving garden pieces include a temple fountain called Neubrunn, a Victory or Peace column nicknamed “Black Gretl”, an obelisk commemorating Field Marshal Gideon von Loudon and a monument to Chancellor Franz Josef von Saurau; these historic elements remain on the grounds, though their positions have varied over time.

During earthworks near the granary in 1984–85 roughly one hundred full‑size Baroque stone figures, likely dating to about 1700, were uncovered. The figures are original stone sculpture from the Baroque period; their original arrangement around the site has not been re-established. The complex was heavily damaged and partly stripped during the USIA period after the Second World War, and following restitution the buildings and park have been the subject of ongoing repair and conservation.