Kirchberg am Walde Castle was founded around 1130 by Count Ekberg II of Formbach-Pitten as the seat of territorial power and a catalyst for regional settlement and cultivation. The three-storey castle features a rectangular layout with elegant columned arcades enclosing a central courtyard and a distinctive square stair tower crowned with a pyramid roof. Following Turkish destruction and subsequent reconstruction in 1532, the Counts Trauttmansdorff and later the Auersperg family shaped its character across centuries. Since 1923, the castle has served the province of Styria as an agricultural college, blending historic architecture with contemporary educational purpose.
