Kammer Lake Castle

The lakeside castle Seeschloss Kammer is privately owned and can only be visited from the outside.

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The name 'Kammer' first appeared with the mention of Haidfalk of Cham, (Hæidfolcho de Cham) in 1249 around the time the Schaunberger family was installed as governors of the area.

In 1260, a castle 'Kammer' was first mentioned. The so-called 'Veste Camer in Adersee', later 'Schloss Kammer' was built and developed by the Schaunberger family on a small island in the lake as the administrative center of the Attergau region. In the course of the "Schaunberger feud" between the Habsburg Duke Albrecht III. and Count Heinrich of Schaunberg,  Reinprecht II of Wallsee conquered the castle. The peace agreement of 1383 forced the Schaunberger family to sell the castle to the Habsburg duke.

The domains Attersee / Kogl, Frankenburg and Kammer now belonged to the Habsburg sovereign and were assigned as fief. The first to obtain the fief was the governor of Upper Austria Heinrich IV of Wallsee right in 1383, in 1483 the fief passed to the Jörger family and in 1499 to the Polheim family.

In 1540 the rich Hanns Hofmann, Baron of Grüenpüchel and Strechau, bought Schloss Kammer  chamber as a free property, in 1570 the Habsburgs rebought it. In order to cover debts, Emperor Rudolf II had to sell Schloss Kammer in 1581 to his chamberlain and ambassador in Spain, Hans Freiherr von Khevenhüller. In 1593 he became count and the three domains Frankenburg, Kogl and Kammer were then called County Frankenburg.

Between 1622 and 1649, the lakeside castle, which could only be accessed via a drawbridge, was significantly enlarged (construction of the knight's hall).

In 1710, the lakeside castle was redesigned by the baroque architect Michael Prunner from Linz to become a chateau and to give it today's appearance. Prunner also planned the ensemble of service buildings gathered around a round inner courtyard. With an annual revenue of more than  10.000 guilders, Kammer constituted an important economic factor. After all, the county Kammer had 674 subjects in 1750. Two of the originally four archways had to be torn down due to increasing traffic in the 20th century. (north gate 1938, south gate 1971).

The Chateau's chapel is also noteworthy. It was created by the baroque artist Franz Josef Holzinger.

Until 1848, Schloss Kammer was the seat of a provincial court. In 1837 the last public execution took place here. The murderer, who had been sentenced to death, was hanged at 9 o'clock. His body was left hanging on the gallows until 6 o'clock as a deterrent.

The Khevenhüller family remained in possession of the castle until 1903. For financial reasons,  Ida, daughter of the last Upper Austrian Khevenhüller had to pass the possession on to the Upper Austrian State Mortgage Institution.

The lime avenue leading from the former service buildings to the castle has been immortalized by Gustav Klimt in one of his famous Attersee landscapes.

Schloss Kammer now became a bourgeois possession, but ownership changed often initially. In 1925, the Jeszensky family became owners, in 1994 the Max-Theurer family.

Source: www.atterwiki.at