Schloß Ottensheim

OTTENSHEIM CASTLE: An elongated complex resulting from the transformation from a castle to a palace. The courtyard is divided into two terraces and is enclosed to the east by the tower wing. The tower is made accessible by a door broken out of the wall, allowing access from the outside to the chapel located on the first floor. On the north side, from the extensive park, a baroque stone staircase, flanked by two stone lions, leads to a stone balustrade. Access is on the east side through a hewn stone portal. The castle, first mentioned in a document around 1148 as belonging to the brothers Cholo and Ulrich von Wilheringen, is located west of the market on a granite rock outcrop above the Danube. Owners: 1227 Babenberger - over 300 years of princely chamber property, 1527 Nikolaus Rabenhaupt - conversion of the castle into a palace, 1621 Allied Bavarian troops and Jesuit Order, 1773 Chamber property, 1939 German Wehrmacht/Forest Administration. Towards the end of World War II, it served as refugee accommodation and until 1955 as the seat of the Russian local command. 1957 Restitution to the English owners from 1939. 1981 currently owned by an Austrian woman living in Nairobi. The castle is private property and not accessible to visitors.