Heiligenkreuz Castle
Story:
The creation goes back to the discovery of the statue of the Virgin Mary, which can be seen on the high altar of the pilgrimage church. The then lord of the castle, Jakob Freiherr von Tepsern, had a chapel built for this figure in 1733, which he had Paul Troger magnificently frescoed with a depiction of “Maria Himmelfahrt”.
The influx of pilgrims that then began caused the lord of the castle to move his residence from Gutenbrunn to the mountain. He appointed Johann Ohmeyer, a student of Hildebrandt, as master builder. He designed the elongated castle wing including 2 towers on the north side.
After Tepsern's death, the rule of Gutenbrunn passed to the auxiliary bishop Franz Anton Marxer. He was Maria Theresa's confessor and a great benefactor of orphaned children. Among other things, he built the orphanage for girls on Rennweg in Vienna. Franz Anton Maulbertsch was a very artistic and building-loving person and, what may sound astonishing today, he played the lottery and once won 35,000 and again 60,000 gold guilders. With the help of this money he set out to develop Heiligenkreuz into what it is today.
He brought well-known artists to Heiligenkreuz, such as Franz von Hohenberg-Hetzendorf, who designed the high altar, and Franz Anton Maulbertsch, the painter of the pilgrimage church. The Moosbrugger brothers stuccoed the staircase in the castle. Franz Anton Marxer completed the building into a square in 1760. An alumnus was built on the west side, which lasted until 1806.
When he finished construction, he donated the manor to the Diocese of Passau as a summer residence. In 1785, Emperor Joseph, Maria Theresa's son, created the diocese of St. Pölten and at the same time serfdom was abolished with the robot replacement protocol for the manorial rule. The diocese was not interested in ruling due to the establishment of the former Augustinian monastery in St. Pölten without serfdom, so a public auction took place. In 20 years, 13 different owners were recorded, the last owner was Baron Reichenbach, a well-known natural scientist and technician, who lost his fortune in various experiments, so the property was bought by the Figdor family in 1858 and has remained in their possession to this day.