Schloss Kornberg was first mentioned in a document in 1284. It is located in southeastern Styria, in Austria. The area is one of the richest in fortressed castles in Europe, as for centuries Styria has represented a bridge between middle and southeastern Europe and played a major role as a bastion against invading people. These impressive fortifications, real architectural masterpieces, are scattered all around the border between Austria and Slovenia and today they together form the so-called Castle Road (Die Schlösserstrasse), a renowned tourist destination. The current owner and inhabitant of Schloss Kornberg is Count Andreas Bardeau, Honorary Consul of Romania in Graz. The castle belongs to his family since 1871. It is Count Bardeau himself who will personally open the doors of his splendid house to us. Video by @EUHistoricHouses #castle#castles#bestcastles#schloss#austria
Good afternoon, welcome to my castle Kornberg which is in the south of Austria and Styria
and it belongs to our family since 1871. I will show you in the next few minutes
our castle and also the houses around where we have some exhibitions. My name is Andreas Bardo
and I'm the administrator from our Kornberg Foundation and also I'm the consul of
Romania here in Styria. In the following minutes we will go through
our interior and also we will see some exhibitions. Let's go upstairs and here you can see
some influence from our family from the time from 1826 until the First World War.
The influence is from Upper Italy because at that time our family was in Venice and also in Trieste.
You can see it from the terrazzo and also you can see it here from the chairs.
The chairs are nearly 500 years from the renaissance time and this is a special thing
from my great-great-uncle. At that time, it is nearly 150 years,
at that time the pupils who had gone also to a monastery school had also to learn
some handcraft and therefore he was also a carpenter, a special carpenter at that time.
When he ended his school he also was a master of this carpenter. On the left side here you can see
Ludwig XVI who was murdered and also his wife Marion in the French Revolution.
Here we go in our you can see it here and it was built in 1638 and in the middle we have it
in the baroque style. On the right side you have a flag from an owner, it was the Baron of Stadel
who was with this flag in a small battle against the Turks. On the left side,
on the left side you can see another flag when Rudolf, the Baron Rudolf von Stadel,
was with the Imperator from the Holy Roman Empire in Rome and got this flag from the Pope.
Here we can see some special things from 200 years before. It was also made
by my grand-aunts and also my grand-grandmother.
Okay, then let's go in the first saloon. This saloon is called
Summer Saloon. Here we have a painting of a painting from my grand-grandfather and my
grand-grandmother when they had their wedding in Rome in Saint Peter's. It is painted by
a well-known painter. Here we can see the bows with the bishop from Graz because there was a
synod in that time in Rome. My grand-grandfather is in the uniform from a sovereign knight
of the Oden of Maltese. Here we go on the next saloon.
Here we are now in our family gallery. It's called Green Saloon. On the right side
we can see our grandpa in his clothes in a time when he was a pupil. On the right side
two of his three sisters, Margrit Bardot and also Beatrice. Beatrice was in the first world war
and the sister of Red Cross and also she gave a lot of money in this
hospital camp. On the upper here is the third sister. It is Alice. She was married with the
it's a castle nearby. Here we can see also a great French father from the 17th century.
He was in the French court and here he was a notary. Our family was first known in the 13th
century. They have the right to transport the small ships on the Loire. Here on the left side
we have some paintings from the family of my great-grand-aunt. The family also came from France
and they were on the French court and also in the military. It's a good family of the barons
of Belgarde and also there's a town near Saint-Tropez. It is called Belgarde.
Here you can see my great-grand-grandfather. He was and you can see
he looks like my son. He was in the Austrian military
in the high position. On the other side we have also a great-grand-uncle. He was a
from the Austrian court in the time of Franz Joseph. Here we can see also Adelaide Belgarde
and there was a small scandal because she was painted here. She was the girlfriend from David
and David was a very important painter in the time of Napoleon and you can see here
topless on this painting from the Sabine. Here I can show you some interesting things. My
grandfather was also a knight from the sovereign order of Malta and we can see him
here with the Imperator Wilhelm of Germany. He brought with his train, he bought a train
from the sovereign order of Malta, Malteser Zug A, nearly 50,000 wounded soldiers from the different
parts of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. When my father was born, my grandmother
painted here and wrote a book ABC from him in the time of 1929. Here we can see
A and the different paintings from the different
things what they have done in the time of the Art Nouveau. Next year our family will be here
150 years and then we make here in our special exhibition. In the time of the second world war
there was also nearby between Fellbach and Fehring a monastery and this monastery was closed in the
time of the second world war from the Nazis. My grandmother was asked if she could
organize that 10 of these ladies from this monastery could live here and then they were
here one year and then they made this book for my father and my uncle because it was in Latin
and they translated also from Latin and from the old languages from Germany. Now we go in our
next room. It was the dining room for my great-grandfather and my great-grandmother.
When my grandfather and grandmother came here, all the rooms were not decorated
and therefore they make this decoration in the style of the historism and here we can see
the style of renaissance style but it was made in the 19th century. On the other side left from my
side we can see from Japan Imari porcelain and here on the left side this is my great-grandmother.
She was here as a widow. When the husband died normally the ladies had to wear
this widow clothes. Here we can see in the rococo style, it is not porcelain, it is faience,
what was daily used in our household and also in my childhood I also
reused it. Now I will tell you that this faience was also bought in the wedding journey from 1870
when my great-grandfather and great-grandmother made their wedding journey to Paris
and then later they bought also this here in London, this silver. Now we will go to the
to the gentleman's saloon. The gentleman's saloon was the saloon of my great-grandfather
and here we will see not the coat of arms, it is on the other side to make the
for the to be a member of the Oden of Malta. It was for the ladies also and this is from my
great-grandmother, the father of her grandfather and so on. On the left side and the right side
from mother's side also from the family Lucchesi Palli, it is an Italian-Spanish family and from
my grandmother, from my great-grandmother, the grandmother was also an important person.
She was the daughter of the king of both Sicily and also from the Archduchess of Austria and
she was married with the Duke of Bourbon. She was of Paris, but he had to be
king and she queen of France, but he was murdered after they had gone to the opera from Paris
and then she wanted that the son of her had to be king, but she make a small revolution and had to
then go to the court and was in the jail of Paris. Then when she was a widow,
the second husband Lucchesi Palli married her and she had to go to Austria and was here
in Assyl and then she bought the castle of Brunsee and the castle of Weinburg.
Here you have a small box for the jewels. It is in a special kind of historism also.
And here is the ladies' saloon. The ladies' saloon is, I would say, all these photos. We make a
renovation in Timisoara because we had found, we had to find it there a good confidence.
And when we see outside, we can see now, we go to the window and then we can see here
the small pavilion. This small pavilion is nowadays used for the civil weddings. It is from the 17th
century. Also interesting is here on the other side this big mirror. Now let's go
to my office and then to my private saloon. My grandfather was also a hunter and therefore
you can see a lot of deers what he had hunted on their properties. Here you can see
transport when they go on journeys. This specially is from Emma Bardot. She was my
grand-grandmother. Here we have my office and you can see also a painting from my wife.
My wife has also a castle in Lower Austria. It is called Artstetten and this painting
is, had made a painter from San Andrei near Timisoara and it was a gift from the family
who works nowadays for her from Timisoara. Here we have a room from the Rococo time.
This office is used for our Bardot administration and also for the castle road.
I am the president of the castle road and this castle road is since 40 years. Nowadays
since five years I'm the president of this castle road and nowadays we have 22 castles in Styria,
six in Bogenland, nine in Slovenia and four in Croatia. In total 41. Last year we had the
opportunity also to have three films, three from the castle road and it was in Trieste
and 2,500,000 people could see it in the television. This is three different tours
where we can go to these castles. Now let's go to my private saloon.
My private saloon is here and here we have also this lady who is the Countess of Herberstein.
For the young ladies most important is this here. It is from Louis Vuitton from the year 1910
and it was bought from my grand aunt in London. Here you have the colors of her family from the
counts of Herberstein. Oh this is our dog Momo. Here you can see also some paintings from my
grand grandmother. She was the Countess of Lucchese Valley and here she married from her
castle Brunze to this castle from my grand grandfather. He was the Count of Salm and this
now is in Slovenia since the first world war. Here you can see also in Venice Palazzo Ventramin
and there was also an atelier from Richard Wagner.
Here you can see a clock from Buhl. Buhl was a special architect to make these metal interiors.
This is a painting from my grandmother. All what I know here is from my grandmother. She wrote
three books for me for all these historic things from the family and also from the time before.
Here you can see her in the time when she was 17. Okay then let's go. I would like to see
now when you can see outside there's our park and the colors of autumn.
Then I would say let's go down to our courtyard and there is an interesting exhibition
over castle fortresses and palaces from all over the world. We have this exhibition since
three years here and this is our models and then we will see it now. Here we have
our special exhibition about the small world of the big castles. Here there is a fortress
in Predjama. On the other side we have Potola Palace from Tibet and here Dragozhan in Croatia
and here's a summer residence of the Romanian royal family, Belesh, in the style of the
Here is this marble castle in Poland from the order of the German knights.
Here the fortress Eltz. It is the 38th generation owned by the family Eltz.
On the other side we have Neuschwanstein in Germany from Ludwig II and here
this castle is in Belgium. A garden of all fruits and and all other things in France
in Villon-Tri on the Loire river. Here we are in China and there are the Tolu
castles. Normally we can see also here a film how these castles are built. Here we are in Portugal
in Sintra. This is the Pena Palace. It looks like in these different colors in the style of
Islamic. And here the other Romanian castle, Castle Bran. It was given back to the family
Habsburg-Lorraine and the mother of Dominic Habsburg was the princess of Romania.
And here is the Emezi palace in Japan. Now we go to the other special exhibition
in this year. It's an exhibition of a Lego. Here we have also a shop from Lego
and here the kids have the opportunity to build different things with Lego. And here
they are from the community of Lego from Austria. Different examples from them.