Schloss Seggau is a castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 situated in the locality Seggauberg

Seggauberg

Seggauberg is a municipality in the district of Leibnitz in Styria, Austria....

 in the southern Styria Province of Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. It is located on a wooded hill overlooking the town of Leibnitz

Leibnitz

Leibnitz is a city in the Austrian state of Styria and at the 2001 census had a population of approximately 7.577 .It is located to the south of the city of Graz, between the Mur and Sulm rivers....

.

History

The area around Schloss Seggau has been settled since at least the Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 era, as demonstrated by the impressive Lapidarium

Lapidarium

A lapidarium is a place where stone monuments and fragments of archaeological interest are exhibited - stone epigraphs, statues, architectural details like columns, cornices and acroterions, as well as tombstones and sarcophagi....

 which has survived from that period. The upper castle was built by the Archbishopric of Salzburg

Archbishopric of Salzburg

The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire, its territory roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg....

 in the twelfth century as a base for missions and supervision and this original structure was expanded in 1218 by the bishops of Seckau. Over time, a total of three castles were built: the castle "Leibnitz" (belonging to the Archbishopric of Salzburg), the castle belonging to the bishops of Seckau, and the Polheim castle. The castles were completed in their present form under Bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 Johann Ernst Count

Count

A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...

 of Thun in the latter half of the seventeenth century. Until 1786 Schloss Seggau was the residence of the bishop, after which it remained the summer residence until into the twentieth century.

Schloss Seggau now serves as a site for seminars and congresses with a hotel and a "Schloss Cafe". The wine cellar

Wine cellar

A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae or plastic containers. In an active wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system. In contrast, passive wine cellars are not...

is over three hundred years old and offers the opportunity for wine tastings and sales.