Castle history and historic craftsmanship shape Weinburg am Saßbach. The Wanderstab / St. Stefan-Mureck route adds a hiking dimension to this cultural focus.
Castle and Chapel
The castle complex of Schloss Weinburg, which still stands today, has an irregular pentagonal layout and includes an inner courtyard and corner towers. Andrea Bertoletto of Como, Italy, created this design between 1578 and 1590. The name describes the basic shape; the inner courtyard and corner towers identify other elements of the complex. A later chapter in the castle’s history came in 1837, when it was acquired by Marie Caroline, Duchess of Berry, and her second husband, Count Ettore Lucchesi Palli. The design and the acquisition mark different historical layers in the castle’s history.
The castle church (chapel) in Weinburg am Saßbach also has a precisely dated point of reference: on November 25, 1508, Saint Catherine’s Day, Bishop Martinus of Seckau consecrated the present-day side altar of the Mother of God. Masses at the castle church follow the service schedule of the St. Veit am Vogau parish office. If you plan to attend a service, check that schedule. Another historical landmark in Weinburg am Saßbach is the Siebing Chapel, which was renovated in 2007.
Historic Crafts Village and Bridge Weighbridge
The historic crafts village is a small village rebuilt from historic buildings that had been dismantled. Visitors can see a general store, a smithy, a wheelwright’s workshop, a shoemaker’s workshop and a threshing barn with old farm equipment. There is also a tree press, an apiary, a farmhouse with a smoke kitchen, a smallholder’s house and a weaving workshop. The collection ranges from individual workshops and trades to farm dwellings and workspaces. The smithy, wheelwright’s workshop, shoemaker’s workshop and weaving workshop represent different crafts; the threshing barn and farm equipment add agricultural work as another theme.
The bridge weighbridge offers another glimpse into local technological history: it was initiated and built by a bridge-weighbridge association in 1924. The weighbridge hut for the Weinburg am Saßbach bridge weighbridge also dates from 1924 and has stood since 2003 in the nearby village of Pichla bei St. Veit, in the historic crafts village. This makes it possible to distinguish the bridge weighbridge from the later chapter in the weighbridge hut’s history at its new location.
The Saßbach and the Hiking Route
The historic landscape is also connected to the Saßbach. With some certainty, “Sebach” referred to the Saßbach, which formed a lake between Weinburg and Brunnsee in the Middle Ages. This account concerns an earlier form of the landscape, setting it apart from the stories of individual buildings.
The Wanderstab / St. Stefan-Mureck route follows a ridge trail with viewpoints to Weinburg. Its specific features are the ridge trail and the viewpoints; the castle and chapels focus on architectural and religious history, while the historic crafts village showcases historic trades and rural buildings. When choosing your destination, you can decide whether you’d like to focus on architecture, crafts or hiking.
Discover more destinations: Waasen am Berg, Stang Bei Hatzendorf, Sankt Peter Am Ottersbach, Mühldorf Bei Feldbach, Burgfeld, Neusetz, Tieschen, Lugitsch
Back to the regional travel overview: Southeast Styria.
