The Painhof, which is usually also referred to as Painburg, was built around 1420 by the Lords of Pain as a moated castle. The actual Painburg was a predecessor building, of which today there are only barely recognizable traces. The Lords of Pain were in the service of the bishops of Bamberg. They lived in the Painhof until 1544.
Towards the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century, they undertook significant extensions and expansions of the fortifications. These fortifications proved to be extremely effective, because when Turkish raiders devastated the villages of the upper Lavant valley at the end of the 15th century, they left the Painhof, to which parts of the civilian population had fled, unscathed.
In 1544, Siegmund von Pain had the spacious Lichtengraben Castle built not far from the castle. The Painburg was abandoned and its masonry used as building material for the expansion of the new residence. In terms of ownership, the ruins have remained connected to Lichtengraben Castle to this day. Seyfried von Pain had to file for bankruptcy in 1615. Although his main creditors were his two sisters and his mother, the rule had to be ceded to Melchior Putz von Kirchheimegg. The family died out in 1652 with Hans Christoph von Pain. The estate now had a number of owners, most of whom inherited the dominion from one another. Eventually Franz Josef Freiherr von Teuffenbach bought the property in 1711.
Lichtengraben remained with the Teuffenbach family until 1839. After that it passed to Eugen Ritter von Dickmann. After 1870, Lichtengraben fell to the Hüttenberger Eisenwerksgesellschaft, which was eventually replaced by the Alpine Montangesellschaft. In 1886 the Royal Norwegian Consul Dr. Karl Neufeld the estate. The estate has been family-owned since that time. Namely the families Baumann, von Bitzy and finally the family Rittler, which still owns the property and runs it as an agricultural and forestry business.
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