Schallaburg Castle

Schallaburg Castle is a castle in the village of Schallaburg in the municipality of Schollach, near the Wachau valley, Lower Austria, north of the Alps. Schallaburg Renaissance Castle is 5 kilometres (3 mi) from Melk, in the region known as Mostviertel. The central part of the castle was built in the German Renaissance Age, beginning around 1540, by the Losenstein dynasty.

Description

The castle is combination of a Romanesque residential castle and a Gothic chapel, patterned in the Italian Renaissance style. Aesthetically built, it has a well-decorated two-storied arcaded court with elegant cantilevered staircases and a courtyard. The decorations are in terracotta mosaic depicting mythological figures, gods, masks and human beings and animals; a legendary mythical figurine here is known as Hundefräulein (a female human figure with a dog’s head).

At the gate entrance to the castle, there are two large "smoke-spewing dragons", each 30 metres (98 ft) long and 6 metres (20 ft) high, which is a favourite entertainment spot for the children to slide down its mouth from the top. Its culturally rich Mannerist gardens have roses, ornamental trees and bushes and herbs planted in the gardens in the town, and two Renaissance apple...