Ruin back house
The Hinterhaus castle ruins are a hilltop castle dominating the south-western end of the market town of Spitz an der Donau, on a rocky outcrop that slopes steeply to the south-east and north-west to the Danube, opposite the thousand-bucket mountain. The Hinterhaus castle ruins are an elongated complex on rising terrain in the gusset between the Spitzer Graben and the Danube, which is formed by a foothill of the Elferkogel, an elevation of the Jauerling massif.
The rear building was the upper castle of the Spitz dominion, which was also called the upper house to distinguish it from the lower castle located in the village. The Formbacher, an old Bavarian count family, are likely to be the builders of the rear building. In 1242 the fief was passed on to the Bavarian dukes by the Niederaltaich Abbey, who handed it over to the Kuenringers a little later as a sub-fief. These let the rule of burgraves administer. Hinterhaus Castle served as the administrative center. The location of the Hinterhaus Castle was chosen on the one hand to control the Danube valley and on the other hand because an ancient trade connection led from the Danube through the Spitzer Graben to Bohemia directly below.
In 1256, Hinterhaus was a documented fortress of the Kuenring feudal knight Arnold von Spitz. The Kuenringers were an Austrian ministerial family, originally unfree servants of the Babenbergs, an Austrian margrave and ducal family of Franconian-Bavarian origin. The progenitor of the Kuenringer is Azzo von Gobatsburg, a pious and rich man who came to what is now Lower Austria in the 11th century in the wake of a son of the Babenberg Margrave Leopold I. In the course of the 12th century, the Kuenringers came to rule in the Wachau, which, in addition to Hinterhaus Castle, also included Dürnstein and Aggstein Castles, with Hinterhaus Castle being the first castle downstream on the left bank of the Danube.
Until they died out in 1355, Hinterhaus was the seat of the Kuenringers as vassals of the Bavarian dukes Austrian ministerial sex, rear building as a pledge. In the Middle Ages, it was common for sovereigns to lend places or entire estates as liens in exchange for borrowed money. In the course of the Habsburg fraternal dispute over the guardianship of the minor Albrecht V., Hinterhaus was taken and destroyed in 1409. In 1438, Duke Ernst of Bavaria took back the castle from Otto IV of Maissau and employed caretakers. After that it was rebuilt. In 1493 the Hinterhaus Castle was taken by Hungarian troops.
In 1504 Hinterhaus Castle became sovereign, the Bavarian possessions in Austria fell to Emperor Maximilian I after the end of the Bavarian inheritance dispute, which ended the extraterritoriality of this region. Since the rear building had not been inhabited since 1500, it began to decay. The rulers had preferred the more central Lower Castle in the north-west of Spitz. Due to the latent Turkish threat, the Hinterhaus Castle was fortified again in the first half of the 16th century.
During the Thirty Years' War, Spitz was plundered and burned for four days in 1620 by the Polish mercenaries of the Catholic Emperor Ferdinand II, in revenge on the Spitz squire Hans Lorenz II von Kueffstain, the commander of the Protestants set. After that, the destroyed Hinterhaus Castle was left to decay. When Napoleon's French troops marched along the Danube in the direction of Vienna in 1805 and 1809, the already ruinous building was badly damaged again.
The partially Romanesque complex of the Hinterhaus Castle from the 12th and 13th centuries was expanded mainly in the 15th century. There is a longitudinally rectangular enclosing wall, adapted to the terrain and bent several times, with 4 round, 2-storey corner bastions made of coarse quarry stone masonry with renewed rectangular battlements. The two eastern towers were intended for crossbow defense, while the western bastions were designed for arquebus combat, as can be seen from the different loopholes.
Access to the castle is via a steep path from the north. On the north-eastern ring wall you can reach the elongated eastern outer bailey through a round-arched portal. Another arched portal with pecherker leads into the courtyard of the stronghold to the Palas located in the middle of the complex.
At the highest point of the complex, in the north-west corner of the stronghold, is the 20 m high square keep, which dates back to Romanesque times. The massive keep is multi-storey and consists of ashlar masonry, arched windows and rectangular slits. On the 2nd floor there is a groined vault made of quarry stone masonry, in the north-western corner tower there is a domed vault in circular layers and in the 2nd courtyard there is a cistern. The high entrance of the castle is about six meters above the ground. In the masonry of the north-east wall, a staircase leads from the first floor to the next floor, from which an iron staircase leads to the defense platform, which was converted into a lookout point. Under the partially well-preserved battlements of the outer walls, the beam holes of the former battlement can be seen.
Behind the keep, a high and strong wall separates the main castle from the western bailey. This part of the complex dates mainly to the first half of the 16th century. Century back, when the increased Turkish invasions made an expansion of the military installations advisable.
The ruins of the Hinterhaus now belong to the Market town of Spitz on the Danube. The required maintenance measures are carried out by the tourist association Spitz. The ruins of the Hinterhaus are freely accessible to visitors.
The high point of every year is the midsummer celebration in June, when the outlines of the ruins of the Hinterhaus are depicted with a chain of lights at dusk.
The following sources, among others, were used to create this article: Dehio Lower Austria and spitz-wachau.at. The photos are all from Mag. Brigitte Pamperl.
The following entry shows the route if you want to make a detour to the Hinterhaus ruins by e-bike from Donauplatz in Oberarnsdorf. It is best to take a look at the 3D preview in any case. Just click on it.
