Moosham Castle

Moosham stands above the Lungau valley and was an administrative seat of the archbishops of Salzburg, which is what put it at the centre of the Zauberer-Jackl-Prozesse - the Salzburg witch trials between 1675 and 1690, in which around a hundred and forty people were executed, most of them young, poor and homeless, many of them children and adolescents, tried on charges of sorcery attached to a supposed sorcerer named Jackl who was never found. The castle held the court and the cells. In the nineteenth century Count Wilczek bought and restored it and fitted it with collections. Tours cover the halls, the collections and the trial history, and a good deal of ghost-story marketing has attached itself to the place, which sits awkwardly with what actually happened here.

What you actually see

• The trial court and cells - where the Salzburg witch trials were conducted.
• A restored nineteenth-century interior - Wilczek's furnishing and collections.
• The Lungau position - the castle above the valley and the old road.
• Guided tours - the only way through the halls and the history.

When to go

May to October; closed over winter. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Guided tours only, mainly in German. The witch trial history involves the execution of children and is presented alongside ghost-tour marketing, which many visitors find jarring.

Nearby

Mauterndorf castle and Tamsweg are close.