Ancient Lower Austrian Nobility · since 1194
Eight centuries of Austrian history —
and the Bourbon legacy at Frohsdorf
Counts of Wurmbrand and Stuppach
Barons of Steyersberg
The House
In 1194, Leupold der Wurmbrant makes his first documented appearance — in a charter of the Archbishop of Salzburg, long before the Habsburgs came to Austria. For more than 800 years the family has been rooted in the Bucklige Welt of Lower Austria, where the ruin of the ancestral castle of Wurmbrand still recalls its beginnings.
The house owes its heraldic beast to a legend told below: on a field of silver it bears the black lindworm with a burning branch in its jaws — an image still found today on castles, churches and gravestones between Haßbach and Schwarzau.
For centuries the Wurmbrands served the Imperial court as diplomats, generals and scholars. Count Johann Josef Wilhelm (1670–1750), President of the Imperial Aulic Council, is regarded as the father of Austrian genealogy. Today the house is led by Count Ernst Gundaccar; the family's seat is the historic hunting lodge at Frohsdorf.
The Wurmbrand Legend
Many hundreds of years ago, so the legend tells, a lindworm dwelt in the forests near Stuppach — a dragon that ravaged the lands of the Countess of Stuppach, tore the cattle and struck fear into the people.
Many a brave knight set out to slay the beast — yet no blade could pierce its armoured body, and none returned victorious. Then a young knight tried cunning instead: rather than reaching for his sword, he took a branch, set it alight at both ends, and when the lindworm opened its jaws to devour him, he thrust the burning wood deep into its gullet. The fire consumed the dragon from within — the worm burned.
From the "Wurm-Brand" — the burning of the worm — came a name: in gratitude the knight received land and honours, and ever since his line has borne the black lindworm with the burning branch in its jaws as its coat of arms. So the legend tells — and whoever wanders the Bucklige Welt today still meets the dragon with the burning branch: on castle gates, in churches and on old gravestones.
Frohsdorf & the Bourbons
Frohsdorf was a Versailles in miniature: here Marie Thérèse withdrew, the only surviving daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. Here Henri d'Artois, Count of Chambord — King Henry V of France to his faithful — held court for decades, surrounded by a French colony of royalist families.
When the last heir of the line, Don Jaime de Bourbon, died in 1931, Frohsdorf passed to his sister, Princess Beatrice de Bourbon, Princess Massimo by marriage. She was forced to sell the castle in 1941 — yet she did not leave the seat of her ancestors: with her daughters she moved into the hunting lodge at the edge of the park.
Her daughter Blanca married Count Paul von Wurmbrand-Stuppach in 1943. Thus the Bourbon legacy came to our house — and with it the duty of preserving the memory of the royal court of Frohsdorf. To this day the family lives in the hunting lodge, the last living link to the elder line of the Bourbons in Austria.
The Family
Three generations carry the legacy forward — from the grandparents' Bourbon inheritance, through the head of the house, to his four children.
Chronicle
Related Sites
Research & Contact
The history of the house and of the Bourbon exile at Frohsdorf is rich in documents and memories. Historians, researchers and the seriously interested are invited to get in touch with us.
info@wurmbrand.at