The list of owners of Tratzberg Castle high above the Inn Valley near Jenbach reads like a who's who of Tyrolean history; Emperor Maximilian is even said to have immortalised himself with a poem on one of the walls. Today, the castle belongs to Ulrich Goëss-Enzenberg, who has opened it to the public. You can see some of the highlights of the tour in this video:
With a lot of work. We practically live in the office and are in daily demand from visitors and staff. Thirty years ago, we asked ourselves whether we should renovate the castle so that people could also live here. My wife thought that it would make sense for our future children to grow up here and see the castle as a home and not just as a burden that has to be maintained. Because there's always something to renovate somewhere. My grandfather's grandfather - Franz Enzenberg - started renovating 150 years ago - and we are still renovating.
It's not about what's ours. We also feel more like protectors and custodians than owners: we can't take anything with us anyway. That's why I see my task - as my ancestors did - as preservation. If you have the privilege of being able to look after something like this, then you should preserve it as well as possible for posterity and try to improve it. And you also maintain a building differently when it's a home and not just a museum.
The frescoes in the inner courtyard were created during the Renaissance and are now weathered. They were renovated 50 years ago, but the quality of the colours was probably not very good, as they are already fading again. A few years ago, we decided to redo them before they were completely gone, as they are magnificent and worth preserving. To this end, we started a project with the heritage office.
We also used the lockdowns to finish covering the roofs. We actually wanted to cancel the project due to the lack of income, but as a project like this has to be organised for the long term, we did it anyway. It was purely a maintenance measure, with no return on investment. Of course, all this costs an incredible amount of money. But we don't calculate in financial years anyway, but in generations. There have also been bad times in the past.
Tratzberg is full of memories, art treasures, pictures and furniture. The special thing about it is that it was left just as someone moved out 400 years ago. We have the Fugger family to thank in part for the fact that all this furniture has been preserved. Incidentally, the names of the rooms come from an inventory list drawn up by Jakob Fugger. You can still walk through the house today and tick off this list. There are very few castles that are still so fully furnished.
My grandfather loved to show craftsmen round the house. I often feel the same way. Because they appreciate what they see much more. There's this wooden ceiling in the Queen's Room that was made by seven master carpenters with seven journeymen in seven years and seven months - imagine that! A carpenter who can do that understands what a great job it is. It's fun to share this with these people.
There are a few favourite places, including the Fuggerstube and the Tänzlstube, which was named after its builders. There is also a very small room in the tower, the Turmwärterstübchen, from where you have a view from the Wilder Kaiser to the Patscherkofel. I can retreat to this room when I need some peace and quiet - provided I manage to leave my mobile phone downstairs.
We started 25 years ago to make the castle accessible with an audio tour in 9 languages. This made the tour - we also call it an experience tour - more exciting: we let the ancestors tell us how they lived here, in the hunting hall you can hear the horses riding and knights fighting and so on.
Last year, we created a virtual reality tour. Using VR goggles, you can take a five-minute tour to see what the castle used to look like and how it was completely rebuilt after the fire in 1500. With this offer, we are showing that we are modern and fun and also want to appeal to young people.
The pandemic was of course particularly hard because we lost a lot of visitors. That's why we decided to offer a digital tour that can be accessed via our website. For a small ticket price, interested visitors can walk through the entire castle and stay as long as they want. You can also visit rooms that are otherwise not accessible, such as the Tänzlstube. In future, it will also be possible to walk through the secret passages.
Yes, the system behind it is called cultour.digital. The monastery has started to digitise its magnificent monastery library, which is one of the largest in the world. You can go in there, take books off the shelf and then view them digitally. Our content is different. I'm trying to get many other castle colleagues to do the same, because they have the same dilemma: visitors are not allowed to come. But you can make these tours accessible worldwide. The Japanese, Chinese and Americans, who are perhaps not planning to come, can see the castle for 5 euros. I think it's a great opportunity to share this cultural treasure with other interested people.
Tratzberg Castle originally served as a border fortress against Bavaria and has been transformed from a medieval castle into a high-tech museum: You can take a virtual tour through the rooms or experience historical events "live" on a virtual reality journey through time. Numerous hidden secret passages are waiting to be discovered.
