The striking Renaissance castle of the Counts of Raitenau has established itself as an international centre for science & further education since 1981.
The Renaissance residence was commissioned by Hans Gaudenz von Raitenau in 1584/85 and completed by Hans Werner IV von Raitenau around 1616. The Raitenau succession ended with Franz Andreas in 1658 and Hofen Castle passed into the possession of his brother-in-law Georg Reichsgraf von Königsegg-Rotenfels in 1659. In the following centuries, the fief of Hofen, the jurisdiction and sovereignty associated with it, and thus the ownership of the castle passed again and again to other families loyal to the emperor. From 1757 to 1848, the buildings were adapted as a brewery under Joseph Benedikt von Clavell and his descendants. The feudal status of the property ended in 1875 and Schloss Hofen was declared private property. Until 1908 the castle was traded as a speculative object, before it came into the possession of the Sisters of the Order of St. Vincent de Paul from Zams, who set up a home for children and a monastic housekeeping school in the house. During the First World War, Schloss Hofen served as a reserve hospital.
In 1929, the state of Vorarlberg acquired the Renaissance estate. During the Second World War, it was again used as a military hospital and as an office of the German Wehrmacht. After the end of the war, it became the quarters of the French occupation. Between 1951 and 1972, Schloss Hofen was run by two trade groups as a vocational school for the hospitality industry with a boarding school and summer hotel. In 1972, the state of Vorarlberg bought back the property. From 1979 to 1981, it was extensively renovated and adapted into a modern educational centre, which opened as a provincial education centre in 1981. Since 2008 Schloss Hofen has organised the entire continuing education of the Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences and operates as the Science and Continuing Education Centre of the State of Vorarlberg and the University of Applied Sciences.
