Kronsegg was first mentioned as a Passau property around 1250 as “Chranzek”. The castle was probably built by the Lords of Maissau towards the end of the 12th century or at the beginning of the 13th century at the latest. At the beginning of the 14th century, Kronsegg was a fiefdom of the Kuenringers, whose retainer Arnold the Praunsdorfer was based here in 1309. In 1354, the fiefdom was purchased by Ulrich the Neidegger and transferred to Eberhard V. von Walsee, who probably built a large new building incorporating older components.
Together with the other properties of the Kuenring-Seefeld line, Kronsegg came to the Margraves of Brandenburg-Hohenzollern in the later 14th century as marriage property and thus represented a foreign enclave in Habsburg territory until 1783. In 1381, Frederick V of Brandenburg enfeoffed Heinrich von Zelking with the rule, from 1389 the Schad von Lengenfeld family was fiefdom and in the 15th and 16th centuries the lords of the castle changed frequently. Kronsegg, which was already connected to Schiltern at the time, came to the Leisser family in 1569.
During the Thirty Years' War the castle was badly damaged by the Bohemians in 1619/20. Around 1629, Christoph Leisser had the fortified structure expanded like a castle. The adventurer Heinrich Konrad Schreyer, who was in Swedish service, settled in the castle, destroyed it in 1645 and from here devastated the surrounding area with his 150 horsemen even after the Swedes withdrew. After a while he changed fronts and entered the imperial service.
When the Barons von Geymann were enfeoffed with Schiltern-Kronsegg in 1663, they repaired the castle. Karl Freiherr von Hackelberg, who was the owner from 1679, carried out repair work, but left the uninhabitable Kronsegg, moved to Schiltern Castle and left the castle to decay. In 1717, Kronsegg was assigned to thirteen towns in the area as a place of refuge in the event of danger, which suggests that the defensive facilities remained intact for a long time.
In the 18th century there were again frequent changes of ownership. The Peace of Teschen of 1779 resulted in all feudal rights of the Brandenburgers in Austria being transferred to the Habsburgs, with which Kronsegg became sovereign. In 1856, Karl Wolfgang Graf Aichelburg, who had received Schiltern-Kronsegg through marriage, managed to obtain ownership of the estate.
The municipality of Langenlois, which still owns the ruins today, bought Kronsegg in 1928 after the last member of the Aichelburg family line died. Between 1988 and 1994 the ruins were secured, restored and opened to the public from Easter to the end of October (Wikipedia).
Translated by Google •
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