Burg Lockenhaus takes seminars, conferences, company outings, incentive days and weddings for groups of 15 to 250 people, and the whole castle can be hired exclusively for up to 250 guests. The castle stands above the village of Lockenhaus in southern Burgenland, Austria, about 100 km from both Vienna and Graz.
Seminars and company events
Meeting rooms range from a 15-seat salon to a hall for 250, and the castle hotel next door has 55 bedrooms, so a two-day seminar can run without transfers. Projector, screen, pinboards and facilitation kits are supplied on request. Groups can add activity modules: knight games with a local medieval society (with a team-building trainer if needed), abseiling from the castle wall, a Segway course in the castle garden and a guided Segway tour around the castle lake, archery and drumming workshops, and a fire-walk seminar. The exclusive format "a day in the Middle Ages" books the entire castle for up to 250 people with games, guided tours, music and dance, a master of ceremonies and a medieval banquet with a minstrel. In October the castle stages a Dracula theater evening with themed dining.
Weddings and receptions
The castle offers civil and church ceremonies. The Fürstenzimmer, in the outer castle, has its own historic house altar and suits ceremonies and dinners for up to 28 guests, with a private anteroom and restrooms closed to day visitors. The small castle chapel in the upper courtyard holds the oldest frescoes in Burgenland. Civil ceremonies are arranged with the municipality of Lockenhaus, church ceremonies with the local parish, either in the castle or in the Lockenhaus basilica. Florists, cake makers and hairdressers are based in the village.
Rooms and capacities
The Festsaal, the 13th-century palas, takes up to 250 people for events and about 120 at gala tables; it is also the main concert hall of the Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus. The Gothic two-aisled Rittersaal, also 13th century, seats about 100, with an optional dance floor. The Husarenstube, paneled in wood like a hunting lodge, seats 50 to 55 and holds up to 100 for a party. The Trinkstube seats 40, the Fürstenzimmer about 30 and the Grafzimmer 15.
Accommodation
The castle has 55 rooms on site. Castle rooms and two suites sit inside the old castle and face the Geschriebenstein nature park. The castle hotel, built against the castle wall, adds spacious family rooms with a kitchenette and a balcony or terrace overlooking the lake, plus 14 attic rooms that open onto the castle courtyard. Dogs are allowed in the castle hotel, not in the castle rooms.
Catering
The Burgtaverne Lockenhaus runs all catering, from buffets and gala dinners to its medieval banquets, eaten with the fingers in the Rittersaal, the smoke kitchen, the Husarenstube or the Trinkstube. Banquets are offered for groups of 20 or more, with a minstrel or a castle tour as options. A castle café is open during visiting hours.
History and setting
The castle was built around 1200 above the Güns valley and first appears in records in 1242 as Castrum Leuca. It passed to the counts of Güssing in 1270, was extended with the lower castle in 1636 under Franz Nádasdy and went to the Esterházy princes in 1676. Paul Anton and Margaret Keller bought it as a ruin in 1968, and since 1980 a foundation has managed and restored it. Legends link it to the Knights Templar and to Countess Elisabeth Báthory. The castle also shelters one of the largest colonies of Geoffroy's bats in Central Europe.
Getting there
Burg Lockenhaus is at Eugen Horvath Platz 1, 7442 Lockenhaus, roughly 100 km by road from Vienna and from Graz, close to the Hungarian border.
