Ehrenfels Castle (Sils)

Ehrenfels Castle
View from the north
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	Receive
Place:	Sils in Domleschg
Geographical location	46 ° 41 '48 "  N , 9 ° 27' 6"  E Coordinates: 46 ° 41 '48 "  N , 9 ° 27' 6"  E ; CH1903:  seven hundred fifty-three thousand nine hundred fifty-three  /  one hundred and seventy-three thousand six hundred ninety-one

The Ehrenfels Castle is a hilltop castle in from Sils im Domleschg in the District Hinterrhein in Switzerland . It stands south above the village in a steeply sloping forest on a two-tiered rock head on the way to Hohenrätien Castle .

A four-story keep on the highest point forms the center of the complex. Originally a high entrance on the north side led to the second floor, later the entrance was relocated to the courtyard on the valley side. The southern second entrance was created in the 1960s. The system was surrounded by a partly double bering . The original environment was badly distorted by leveling during the restoration in the 1930s.

history

Little is known about the history of the castle and its builders. The tower is believed to be from the first half of the 13th century, the other buildings are more recent. The Bering was probably built in the 14th century, the Palas from the 16th century.

In 1257 the Lords of Ehrenfels were mentioned once by their name: In a purchase contract dated in Reichenau between Baron Albrecht von Sax and the Pfäfers Abbey , “C. de Herinvels ”as a witness. The later members of von Ehrenfels belonged to the Lords of Schauenstein: In a document from Disentis on November 21, 1320, Burchardus et Gotfridus milites, necnon Burchardus et Rudolfus de Herenfels accaeteri (and the others) de Schauenstein are named. The castle itself is only mentioned once in the Domleschger Bundesbrief of 1423: Junker Hermann von Ehrenfels therefore had to serve the Bund with his vesty Erenfels .

Towards the end of the 15th century, the castle is said to have come into the possession of the Cazis monastery and was apparently still inhabited by Rudolf and Kaspar von Ehrenfels-Schauenstein. Rudolf was a colonel of a regiment, Vogt zu Fürstenau , his brother Kaspar owned Schloss Untertagstein in Masein and in 1608 acquired Haldenstein Castle .

Soon after 1600 Ehrenfels Castle was abandoned and began to fall apart. The last male representative of the von Ehrenfels-Schauenstein family, Thomas Franz von Ehrenfels-Schauenstein, colonel of a regiment in the service of Emperor Karl Vl. ; died in 1742. His inheritance and title went to his sister's son, Johann Anton von Buol , lord of Schloss Untertagstein. In 1740 Nicolin Sererhard describes the castle as a ruin.

Entrance part of the youth hostel

Ehrenfels 1891; Drawing by Johann Rudolf Rahn

As a result, the ruins were temporarily used as a quarry. The donjon was almost at its original height, the residential wing, on the other hand, was completely demolished apart from a few remains of the wall. The idea of using the stones from the castle to build the Rhaetian Railway failed because it was more expensive to break the stones than to get them from a quarry.

In 1933 the Swiss Castle Association bought the heavily overgrown castle. Its first president, the controversial architect Eugen Probst (1873-1970) intended to rebuild the castle as a youth castle based on the German model as part of an employment program for young unemployed people . At the end of July 1933, 25 young people began to cut down the undergrowth of the heavily ingrown ruin, fell trees and excavate the complex. The tower was also fortified. After an interruption for financial reasons, the work was continued in 1936 and completed in the following years. Since the restoration work was carried out without any archaeological or scientific support, there is no documentation of the original findings; Descriptions are therefore based on the brief documentation by Erwin Poeschel .

In 1953 the castle was acquired by the Association for Youth Hostels (SJH) and is now owned by the Swiss Foundation for Social Tourism, Zurich. Since then, Ehrenfels has been used as a youth hostel , but is only available to groups.

literature

Location of the castle

• Otto P. Clavadetscher, Werner Meyer : The castle book of Graubünden . Zurich 1984, ISBN 3-280-01319-4
• Thomas Bitterli: Swiss Castle Guide , Friedrich Reinhard Verlag Basel / Berlin, 1995
• Fritz Hauswirth: Castles and palaces in Switzerland . Volume 8. Neptun Verlag. Kreuzlingen, 1972
• Erwin Poeschel: The Art Monuments of the Canton of Graubünden, Volume III. Basel, 1940.

Web links

Commons : Burg Ehrenfels (Sils)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Maria-Letizia Boscardin: Ehrenfels. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Castle world: Ehrenfels Castle
• Via Mala cultural area

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Via Mala ( Memento of the original dated November 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Fritz Hauswirth: Castles and palaces in Switzerland. Volume 8. Neptun Verlag. Kreuzlingen, 1972
3. ↑ Report of the German Society for Archeology of the Middle Ages and Modern Times ( Memento of the original from 23 August 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.