Parz country castle with Renaissance garden

The Parz country castle is one of the most important Renaissance castles in Upper Austria, not least thanks to the famous Parz frescoes from the 16th century, and forms a harmonious ensemble with the surrounding well-tended park and gardens. In summer, the fountain splashes in the flower-adorned arcaded courtyard and historic roses bloom in the garden.

In the mirror of history
The first mention of Parz dates back to around 1340. With the permission of Emperor Maximilian I, Sigmund Ludwig von Polheim built the country castle in its present form in 1514 from the demolition material obtained from the nearby Tegernbach fortress. On the garden facade there are frescoes from around 1580, which are considered to be the main work of Austrian and Southern German Renaissance art. They depict the world view of the humanist-Protestant nobleman in the time of religious conflicts. The dominion of Parz was extensive, even the market of Grieskirchen belonged to the dominion and it was a Polheimer who achieved the elevation of the market to a town in 1613.

The Parz Renaissance frescoes
The famous frescoes on the garden façade of Parz country castle date from around 1580 and are considered to be a major work of Austrian and southern German Renaissance art, both artistically and iconographically. With a length of about 90 meters and a height of over 10 meters, they are the largest cycle of exterior Renaissance frescoes preserved in the original north of the Alps. Thanks to sensitive restoration, the depictions are still of unique colorfulness and impressive richness of detail after almost 500 years.The frescoes represent, on the one hand, an extremely provocative confession of faith and the world view of the humanist Protestant nobleman Sigmund von Polheim in the time of the religious disputes. But they also give an insight into the way of thinking, fashion and many other details of life in the Renaissance.

Garden
In order to round off the ensemble and to show off the south-facing Renaissance façade to its best advantage, construction of a Renaissance garden was begun in 2009. It was important that on the one hand the design traditions of such a garden should be taken into account, on the other hand a modern interpretation was desired. These terraces are divided into octagonal fields bordered with box hedges with different planting. While various roses were chosen for the middle terraces, some of them historic, the two upper and lower fields are planted with historic apple trees entwined with white fragrant climbing roses. The garden's crowning glory is an arcade of copper beech trees, which takes up the design of the columns of the arcade in the courtyard.