Documented for the first time in the 13th century the Tratzberg castle was used as former border stronghold against the Bavarians and as Emperor Maximilian’s I hunting lodge. In the late 15th century the former fortress was destroyed by fire. The Emperor did not rebuild Tratzberg but exchanged the ruin for a castle of the Taenzels, wealthy owners of a silver mine. They had built the first late Gothic part of today’s Castle Tratzberg in 1500, in a particularly magnificent way, with artful ornaments made of marble, wood and iron. In 1554, Georg Knight of Ilsung, a wealthy merchant from Augsburg, acquired the castle, expanded and changed Tratzberg according to the spirit of the Renaissance age. Proof of those changes is the splendidly painted courtyard and exquisite Renaissance parlours. In 1590 Tratzberg came into the possession of the Fuggers, a well-known and wealthy family of merchants, who expanded the castle even further. Most of the now conserved inventory is from this time.
After several changes of owners there was a time when Tratzberg was uninhabited for 150 years. When Franz Count Enzenberg married Ottilie Countess Tannenberg in 1847, the rather neglected castle came into the possession of the Enzenberg family, and it has stayed their homestead since then. Thanks to the family’s dedication and efforts the 6800 sqm castle with its 5000 sqm shingle roof became a gem of a 16th century Tyrolean castle again. It is now one of the most important cultural monuments of the country and open to the public.
References:Goryōkaku (五稜郭) (literally, 'five-point fort') is a star fort in the Japanese city of Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido. The fortress was completed in 1866. It was the main fortress of the short-lived Republic of Ezo.
Goryōkaku was designed in 1855 by Takeda Ayasaburō and Jules Brunet. Their plans was based on the work of the French architect Vauban. The fortress was completed in 1866, two years before the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It is shaped like a five-pointed star. This allowed for greater numbers of gun emplacements on its walls than a traditional Japanese fortress, and reduced the number of blind spots where a cannon could not fire.
The fort was built by the Tokugawa shogunate to protect the Tsugaru Strait against a possible invasion by the Meiji government.
Goryōkaku is famous as the site of the last battle of the Boshin War.