Spaniola Castle Tower

Spaniola Castle Tower
	Spaniola Castle Tower
Alternative name (s):	Tuor
Creation time :	around 1200
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	ruin
Place:	Pontresina
Geographical location	46 ° 29 '21 .5 " N , 9 ° 54' 35.5" O Coordinates: 46 ° 29 '21.5 " N , 9 ° 54' 35.5" E ; CH1903: 789 711 / 151652
Height:	1878 m above sea level M.

The Spaniola castle tower is located above Pontresina in the Engadine in the Swiss canton of Graubünden . The name "Spaniolaturm" is more recent, where the name comes from is unclear. Nicolin Sererhard mentions around 1740 that the tower bears the name of the village.

investment

Tower from the north

The ruins of the mighty, almost regular pentagonal keep is well preserved. Traces of a ring surrounding the tower at a distance of approx. 5 m can hardly be made out in the area. The tower originally had four storeys, in the 2nd there was a high- arched entrance on the valley side towards the southwest . The entrance was through a covered wooden gallery, the beam holes and stone consoles of which are still preserved. There are narrow notches on the 2nd and 3rd floors and a square window on the 4th. In the northeast side there was a lavatory bay with a drainage channel at the northern wall foot. The console stones are also still visible. A pyramid roof that was adapted to the floor plan is to be assumed as a conclusion.

history

The tower was built around 1200, but there are no written documents. The castle was probably the seat of the Lords of Pontresina, which is documented from 1244 to 1307. As the most important family in the Upper Engadin, they got into a dispute with the Chur bishop in 1244, in which they were denied the office of chancellor. In the same year the tower was devastated, but restored in 1261. However, those of Pontresina seem to have held their own, because in 1294 they pledged the Chancellery, an episcopal fiefdom, to Andreas Planta. The family probably died out with Symon von Pontresina, whose fief , the tenth of Pontresina and Celerina , was given to the Murell family.

During the 15th century the tower was abandoned; Ulrich Campell mentions it as a ruin around 1550. Security work was carried out in 1934 and 1994.

gallery

High entrance
North-west side, console stones of the lavatory
Battlements
Remnants of the lavatory dungeon

literature

Lukas Högl: The Spaniola Tower at Pontresina. Swiss Castle Association, Basel 2011, ISBN 978-3-908182-21-4
Otto P. Clavadetscher, Werner Meyer : The castle book of Graubünden . Zurich 1984, ISBN 3-280-01319-4
Castle map of Switzerland , Federal Office of Topography, 2007 edition

Web links

Commons : Pontresina-Spaniola - collection of images, videos and audio files