Schloss Matzen
| Schloss Matzen | |
|---|---|
| Tyrol, Austria | |
| Type | Massive central block around central courtyard with a separate round lookout tower |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Rueter Family |
| Controlled by | Rueter Family |
| Open to the public |
Limited |
| Condition | Intact, used as a hotel |
| Site history | |
| Materials | local stone, wood shingle roof |
| Events | [ War of the Spanish Succession] |
Schloss Matzen is a historic Austrian castle, located in the Tyrol near the branch of the Zillertal from the main Inn valley. Strategically located to control one of the major transalpine trade routes, the origins of the castle date from Roman times and it has a distinctive round tower thought to be of possible Roman derivation. The castle, mostly Gothic in origin is one of the most important surviving historic buildings of the Tyrol.
The site of the castle appears on Roman maps of the Antonine Itinerary as Masciacum, a staging post on the major Roman military road between the provinces of Raetia and Noricum. Roman weapons, jewelry, pottery and a Roman milestone have been found in its vicinity. The castle stands in close proximity to two other castles Schloss Lichtwerth (600m) and Burg Kropfsberg (2000m), reflecting the key strategic importance of the location at the cross-roads of two major valleys offering passage through the Alps. The current edifice date mostly from the early middle ages with many later additions.
In feudal times the castle was the local seat of power, and magistrate's seat. It has a long and complex history of ownership, with no family after the Knights of Frundsberg retaining it for more than 150 years or so. Its Feudal tributaries included the Brandenberg valley. However Matzen was always an Allodial title or freehold property and at no time a temporal or church fief so it does no appear in records of land tenure.
The first mention of the castle in Medieval times is in 1167 in the Salzsburg domesday in which "Ulricus de Vriunsperch von der Matzen" and his wife ELsbeth von Walchen renounce their rights to a property called Waidring (near Kitzbuhl) in favour of the Archbishop of Salzburg - indicating that it was by this time in the possession of the Knights of Frundsberg, a powerful family one of whom George von Frundsberg founded the Landsknechte, modern Europe's first standing infantry army. The Frundberg ancestral home was at Schwaz, some 11 miles distant. At this time a large part of the lower Inn valley was in the fief of the See of Brixen.
A copy of an older medieval document in the chapel indicates that the original chapel was consecrated on 23 November 1176 by Archbishop Conrad of Wittelsbach, a member of the royal house of Bavaria
A deed of 1263 records a visit by Meinhard of Tyrol, the then sovereign, to Matzen (Acta sunt nec (sic) Burgo Matcii) in which a Rupert von Matzen is one of the witnesses for an act confirming gifts to the monastery of St Benedict in Bavaria. A document by Martin Bitschnau in 1282 in the Fiecht/St. Georgenberg archives mentions "Grifo, miles de Matzen". Grifo von Sonnenburg was a knight in the service of the Lord of Frundsberg at Schwaz.
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Wikipedia