Schloss Prielau or Prielau Castle (also called ''Prilla'' or ''Prüel'') is a former

prince-bishop A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty, as opposed to '' Prince of the Church'' itself, a title associated with cardinals. Since 1951, the sole extant prince-bishop has been the ...

's hunting lodge on the shore of

Lake Zell Lake Zell (; ) is a small freshwater lake in the Austrian Alps. It takes its name from the city of Zell am See, which is located on a small delta protruding into the lake. The lake is long and across at its widest. It is up to 73 metres deep ...

in the municipality of

Maishofen Maishofen is a municipality in the district of Zell am See (Pinzgau region), in the state of Salzburg in Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a feder ...

in the district of

Zell am See Zell am See is the administrative capital of the Zell am See District in the Austrian state of Salzburg (state), Salzburg. Located in the Kitzbühel Alps, the town is an important tourist destination due to its Ski resort, ski resorts and shorel ...

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

, Austria. The castle, which is used as a hotel, is under German Foundation for Monument Conservation.

History

Schloss Prielau was first mentioned in 1425 under Christian Glaser zu Prielau. In 1466, Polycarp von Hunt owned the farm. The building was rebuilt between 1560 and 1565 by Hans Christoph Perner von Rettenwörth into the general structure you see today. In 1577, Caspar Panicher owned Wolckersdorff and included it in his name. At that time, Panicher was a provost in the Fusch and a judge in

. He was succeeded by his daughter Anna, who married to Christoph von Hirschau. In 1590, the property passed into the possession of Dietrich Kuen-Belasy,

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...

von

Chiemsee Chiemsee () is a freshwater lake in Bavaria, Germany, near Rosenheim. It is often called "the Bavarian Sea". The rivers Tiroler Achen and Prien (river), Prien flow into the lake from the south, and the river Alz flows out towards the north. The ...

, and remained in Kuen-Belasy's possession until 1722 when the

Diocese of Chiemsee The Bishopric of Chiemsee was a Roman Catholic diocese. While based on the islands of the Chiemsee in Bavaria, Germany, most of its territory lay in the County of Tyrol, Austria. The bishopric ceased to be a residential see in 1808. and according ...

acquired the property. In 1803, the diocese was secularized. The last prince-bishop to use the palace was Sigmund Christoph von Waldburg-Zeil-Trauchburg (whose coat of arms can still be seen on the castle gate). In 1811, the castle was auctioned off to the

sacristan A sacristan is an officer charged with care of the sacristy, the church, and their contents. In ancient times, many duties of the sacrist were performed by the doorkeepers ( ostiarii), and later by the treasurers and mansionarii. The Decretal ...

Anton Neumayer. In 1932, Gerty von Hofmannsthal, the widow of the Austrian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...

, and

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, libretto, librettist, Poetry, poet, Playwdramatist, narrator, and essayist. Early life Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, th ...

, bought the property and began restoring the castle. She lived there with her son Raimund and his wife Lady Elizabeth von Hofmannsthal ( Paget) (the second daughter of

Charles Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Henry Alexander Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey, (14 April 1885 – 21 February 1947) was a British peer, farmer and soldier. Biography Paget was born in 1885 to Lord Alexander Paget, third son of Henry Paget, 2nd ...

). To avoid expropriation by the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

s due to the family's Jewish heritage, she wanted to give the castle away to her daughter Christiane ( von Hofmannsthal) Zimmer and her husband German

indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

Heinrich Zimmer Heinrich Robert Zimmer (6 December 1890 – 20 March 1943) was a German Indologist and linguist, as well as a historian of South Asian art, most known for his works, ''Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization'' and ''Philosophies of Indi ...

, soon after buying it. Christiane could then have sold the property to Gustav Kapsreiter, who was a friend of the family, but the donation, which was initially approved, was ultimately not approved and the family was expropriated. Kapsreiter's attempts to acquire the property were unsuccessful, instead the sculptor

Josef Thorak Josef Thorak (7 February 1889 in Vienna, Austria – 26 February 1952 in Bad Endorf, Bavaria) was an Austrian-German sculptor. He became known for oversize monumental sculptures, particularly of male figures, and was one of the most promi ...

was able to acquire the property for

ℛℳ The (; sign: ℛ︁ℳ︁; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, and in the American, British and French occupied zones of Germany, until 20 June 1948. The Reichsmark was then replaced ...

60,000, which at the time was described as a "small fifteenth-century residence, beautifully furnished and immaculately maintained".

Otto Wächter Baron Otto Gustav von Wächter (8 July 1901 – 14 July 1949) was an Austrian lawyer, Nazi politician and a high-ranking member of the SS, a paramilitary organisation of the Nazi Party. He participated in the Final Solution extermination of Jews ...

occupied the property next door. In 1947 Schloss Prielau was restituted to the von Hofmannsthal family.

Hotel

In 1987, the

Porsche family Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The c ...

bought the property and converted it into a hotel with several guest rooms and suites. It has a park, a red deer farm, a private beach on the northern shore of the lake, a

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

, a helicopter landing and a wellness area with sauna, steam bath and massage services. There is a baroque chapel on the site where 30 to 40 marriages are held each year.

References

External links

Schloss Prielau
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Schloss Prielau Zell am See Zell am See District Castles in Salzburg (federal state) Hotels in Austria Economy of Salzburg (federal state)