Splügen Castle

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Splügen Castle
Splügen Castle

Splügen Castle

Creation time : around 1275
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Free nobles
Construction: Rubble stones, pebbles
Place: Splügen
Geographical location 46 ° 33 '24 "  N , 9 ° 20' 4"  E Coordinates: 46 ° 33 '24 "  N , 9 ° 20' 4"  E ; CH1903:  745 366  /  157909
Height: 1518  m above sea level M.
Splügen Castle (Canton of Graubünden)
Splügen Castle

The ruins of the former Splügen Castle are located east of the village of Splügen in the Rhine Forest in the Swiss canton of Graubünden . It is the only castle in the valley.

location

The ruin of the hilltop castle is 1518  m above sea level. M. one kilometer east of the village on a small hill below the former valley road that led from the Viamala over the Splügen and San Bernardino passes . It can be easily reached from the village in ten minutes on foot on a small road. It is not possible to come by car.

investment

High entrance inside with carved tenon ring

Seen the remains of a fortified bipartite are mountain Frieda membered Palas and a Behring on the north side, the former facing road. The one meter thick walls are still preserved on three sides, the east side facing out of the valley has crumbled. The corner stones show a clear chipped edge. A wall that was still partially recognizable divided the complex into an eastern and a western half.

The high entrance with a Gothic, pointed arched portal with cladding stones made of tuff is about four meters high on the north side and led to the first floor. Bar holes on the outside reveal how the access was made. The doors turned in a carefully hewn stone ring and could be locked with a bar.

On the lower two floors there were cellars and storage rooms that were only lit by narrow window slits. The living rooms were in the western room of the third floor, as can be seen from the partly heavily weathered remains of windows with seating niches and fireplace. One exit led out onto a small balcony or lavatory . Nothing is known about the shape of the roof. The kitchen was in the eastern, less exposed part.

The northern Bering is filled with rubble. It is conceivable that there were stables and outbuildings there. In the missing eastern part of the wall there was probably an outer gate.

In the area of ​​the old road there are traces of a Letzi up the valley .

history

Drawing by Heinrich Kranek, around 1830, looking up the valley

In terms of the building type, Splügen Castle, with its door and window shapes and the tuff cladding stones, fits well into the second half of the 13th century. A construction time around 1275 is conceivable. At that time the valley of the Rheinwald belonged to the area of ​​the county of Schams , which as a fief of the diocese of Chur was in the hands of the barons of Vaz and later of the counts of Werdenberg . The barons of Sax -Misox tried to advance their rule from the Misox over the San Bernardino with the settlement of Walsers . In 1274 they issued an umbrella letter to a group of Walsers in Mesocco .

The appearance of Walsers on the border of their domain must have alarmed the barons of Vaz, who on their part also tried to expand their domain in the sparsely populated valleys. In 1277 the Walser came under the protection of the Vazer. From this it can be assumed that Splügen Castle was previously built, together with the Letzi, by the Barons of Vaz around 1275 to put a stop to the advance of the Misoxers. The Walsers probably felt safer under the rule of the House of Vaz than under Baron von Sax-Misox, who resided across the pass.

With the averting of the advance of the Misoxers and the expansion of the Walser colony, Splügen Castle lost its strategic importance. The meager sources also speak in favor of a short period of use. As early as 1308, a sales letter only mentions a castle stable and a homestead: "to the Burggstal with its usual hoffraiti".

At the beginning of the 14th century the castle was apparently already in ruins. In 1462 Jörg von Werdenberg sold Amman from Rheinwald an interest "from the guot by the castle", which probably also meant the former Splügen Castle. It is not mentioned whether the castle was still standing.

When Jörg von Werdenberg sold the Rheinwald in 1493 to the Milanese military leader Gian Giacomo Trivulzio , Lord von Sax-Misox, the castle of Splügen was no longer mentioned.

literature

  • Fritz Hauswirth: Castles and palaces in Switzerland . Volume 8. Neptune, Kreuzlingen 1972.
  • Otto P. Clavedetscher, Werner Meyer : The castle book of Graubünden . Zurich / Schwäbisch Hall 1984.
  • Werner Meyer: Castles of Switzerland . Volume 3. Silva, Zurich 1983.

Web links

Commons : Splügen Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files