Neu-Aspermont Castle

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Neu-Aspermont Castle
Palas of Neu-Aspermont Castle from the west

Palas of Neu-Aspermont Castle from the west

Creation time : around 1200 to 1250
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Ministeriale
Construction: Quarry stone
Place: Jenins
Geographical location 47 ° 0 '11 "  N , 9 ° 33' 55"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 0 '11 "  N , 9 ° 33' 55"  E ; CH1903:  761 716  /  207 969
Height: 902  m above sea level M.
Neu-Aspermont Castle (Canton of Graubünden)
Neu-Aspermont Castle

The Neu-Aspermont Castle is the ruin of a high medieval Spur castle on the right side of the valley above Jenin in the Grisons Rhine Valley in Switzerland.

location

The ruin is 902  m above sea level. M. high above the community on a rock spur and can be easily reached from the village on foot via a forest road (driving ban) in half an hour.

investment

Plant plan
Southwest side

The oldest components of the complex, the tower and the southern part of the residential wing, date from the first half or the middle of the 13th century. From the 14th to the middle of the 17th century, extensions and alterations were made.

The plant consisted of a composite building complex; several construction phases from the high and late Middle Ages can be seen. The oldest part of the complex is the uphill, square keep made of quarry stone walls ; with the roof space added later, it is seven storeys high. The arched high entrance was on the southwest side on the third floor. The other door openings were broken out later. The plastering in the former residential floor shows the remains of a fresco painting of wide stripes in black and white. What has been preserved is a toilet bay with an inclined drain and traces of a cube-shaped stove visible in the plaster. The tower had a pent roof sloping from northwest to southeast , the crown of the wall was covered with hollow tiles at an angle to the outside.

Downhill the ruins of a powerful two-piece close to the west Palas on. The two-part four-storey south-east wing is directly adjacent to the tower, the narrow five-story north-west wing with walls up to 2.5 m thick was built later. Toilet and seating niches, ovens and other fireplaces reveal that they were used until the 17th century. The cistern was probably in the courtyard, which is now filled with rubble.

To the south and west was a narrow kennel surrounded by a curtain wall . A crenellated wreath with battlements formed the end of the wall . The entrance gate with double locking beams was on the north-eastern narrow side, on the north side there was a small slip gate . The surrounding wall bears traces of a wooden battlement. The original battlements were later partially walled up and provided with loopholes for hand rifles.

Today the complex is in a relatively poor condition and partly overgrown by bushes. At present (April 2007) security work is being carried out inside. Since August 2014, the active members of the Graubünden Castle Association, under the direction of Walter Schläpfer, have been doing a one-week labor service every year to constructively secure the parts of the wall that are in danger of collapsing.

history

Aspermont above Jenins
two-part hall, on the left the newer part
North door
General view, around 1906

The name indicates a foundation by the Lords of Aspermont , who first appeared in the documents in the 12th century. Their ancestral home was Alt-Aspermont Castle near Trimmis . They probably built the new castle above Jenins between 1200 and 1250.

In the course of the 13th century, the Aspermonters were able to build up an important rule in the area of ​​the Bündner Herrschaft and the Prättigau , the center of which, together with Maienfeld , was Neu-Aspermont. Among other things, Fracstein Castle belonged to her property . However, they could not keep the newly founded Aspermont Castle in their own possession, but had to submit it to the feudal power of the Bishop of Chur and the Barons of Vaz .

In 1284, on the occasion of a dispute between the bishop and the Vazern over sovereignty over Jenins, it was agreed that Neu-Aspermont should belong together, but not be allowed to be further developed: the bvhel zer Niwen Aspermunt sol gemaine sin des bischoffs von Kvr und. ... Johanis et Donati and so daz neiman iemer drvf gebvwe .

Johann von Vaz does not seem to have adhered to this judgment, because in 1299 he was asked in writing to demolish the building on Neu-Aspermont: ... vm the bv that Johans von Vatz did vffen the New Aspermunt, that he did the abe break should, if he was promised ... But nobody seems to have kept it and the castle developed into a small rule as a result.

Around the middle of the 14th century the Aspermontese disappeared from Raetia . Around 1350 the brothers Ulrich and Eberhard sold the castle to the knight Rudolf von Rankweil from Feldkirch. In 1376 Ulrich XI gave away. von Aspermont, probably the last of the family, the funeral right in the church of Chur to the Lords of Greifensee . He then lived in Dornbirn and translated the name Aspermont into Rhomberg .

The castle came from the von Rankweil family to the Straiff von Chur family, before 1369 it came to the von Sigberg family through an inheritance . After the von Sigberg family died out, whose possession Aspermont was proven to be from 1393 to 1448, the castle and manor were sold around 1468 to the related von Schlandersberg family from Vinschgau , who owned it until 1522. In 1435 it was conquered for a short time by Friedrich VII of Toggenburg .

Since the Schlandersberg stayed with Austria during the Swabian War, Neu-Aspermont was plundered and partially destroyed by Graubünden troops on February 14, 1499 following the conquest and destruction of Maienfeld Castle. As part of the reconstruction by Dietpold von Schlandersberg, the residential wing was rebuilt and the tower was raised by two floors.

A rapid change of ownership characterizes Neu-Aspermont in the future: Knight Josua von Beroldingen, who bought the castle from his brother-in-law Ulrich von Schlandersberg in 1523, appears as the owner. In 1526 Aspermont came to the Maienfeld bailiff Johann von Marmels , who sold the castle and rule to the Drei Bünde in 1536 . Other owners were the Jenins community, again the Johann von Marmels, in 1538 the family of the Austrian bailiff Peter Finer, around 1540 Gregor von Hohenbalken, the Salis zu Neu-Süns and the Guler von Wynegg . The last resident is said to have been Anton von Molina, the son-in-law of Vespasian von Salis, in 1630. The castle was abandoned in the second half of the 17th century and quickly began to fall apart in the 18th century.

In 1862 Ernest von Rhomberg, a descendant of the founding family of Aspermont, had the Swiss Confederation confirm his descent from the Lords of Aspermont, and in 1863 he bought the ruins from three locals for 500 francs.

In 1997 the castle went to the Neu-Aspermont Castle Association for 75 years through a building rights contract from Karl-Willi Rhomberg. From 2001, in cooperation with the castle association, the securing of the walls was tackled. It is planned to use the castle for cultural and social events. On January 1, 2015, Mr. Romberg sold the ruins to the Neu-Aspermont Castle Association.

Aspermont Texas

The place Aspermont in Texas in the USA was founded around 1890 by an A. L. Rhomberg. It is not known whether there is a connection with Aspermont Castle; but cannot be ruled out.

literature

  • Peter Donatsch: ... being a castle owner on the other hand . In: Terra Grischuna . No. 3/93. Chur 1993, pp. 28-31.
  • Lukas Högl: Castles in the Rock. Swiss contributions to the cultural history and archeology of the Middle Ages . Volume 12. Olten 1986.
  • Werner Meyer , Eduard Widmer: The great castle book of Switzerland . 5th edition. Ex Libris Verlag, Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-7632-3219-2 , pp. 37 and 48.
  • Otto Paul Clavadetscher, Werner Meyer: The castle book of Graubünden . Zurich / Schwäbisch Hall 1984.
  • Werner Meyer (Red.): Castles of Switzerland . Volume 3. Zurich 1983.
  • Anton Mooser : New Aspermont . 1935.
  • Erwin Poeschel : The Castle Book of Graubünden . Zurich / Leipzig 1930.

Web links

Commons : Burg Neu-Aspermont  - Collection of images, videos and audio files