Latour (family)

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House Latour in Brigels

The Latour noble family from Graubünden comes from Breil / Brigels in the Cadi in the Surselva in the Swiss canton of Graubünden . From 1500 to 1900 the Latour belonged to the von Castelberg von Disentis and the de Mont von Vella to the most important families of the Bündner Oberland and thus to the around 40 families of the Bündner upper class, which from the 16th to the 18th century in the Free State of the Three Leagues dominated.

Names

The name is the French name for the tower (la tour) and is derived from the family residence in the second half of the 15th century. Since 1663 she was entitled to put a “de” in front of her name.

coat of arms

A silver tower tinned in red on a green three-mountain. It can be found on all portraits of members of the family and several times in the judges' hall, in the Cuort zu Trun .

history

The family was first mentioned in 1473 with the progenitor Ludwig as a resident of the Marmarola Meier Tower in Breil / Brigels. While the foreign lines of the family (Surcasti) remained historically insignificant, the Brigelser developed into politician and officer dynasties and served as judges. They drew their income from large estates and from pensions , political and military offices. In 1596, Ludwig became a Latour Landammann of the Cadi for the first time , and in 1654, with his grandson Ludwig, became a family member of the Upper (Gray) League for the first time . With that they had reached a level that allowed them to marry with other ruling families, the Castelberg, Montalt and Mont. In 1714, at the time of Caspar Deodat, the French party around Latour and Capol was ousted by the "Austrians" (Castelberg). After this loss of political power, they switched to a military career.

Ludwig Adalbert, the nephew of Adalbert Ludwig, acquired half a company in the Grisons Travers regiment in French service in 1734. In this regiment, numerous Latour served as officers up to the degree of colonel until 1792. The military tradition reached its climax with the papal general Caspar Theodosius, grandson of Ludwig Adalbert, and with his sons Caspar and Heinrich Adalbert († 1878), a major. Around 1800 the Latour returned to the political stage with Peter Anton, brother of the general. In the 19th century, he and his nephews Alois and the aforementioned Caspar formed one of the most influential political dynasties in the canton of Graubünden, working with both the liberal-Catholic (Steinhauser, etc.) and the Catholic-conservative political elite (Peterelli, Decurtins, etc.) ) was related and related by marriage. After the death of Alois, the political importance of the Latour was lost. With 34 nominations, they made the most of the governors in the Cadi's high court, the last in 1915. Today the male representatives of the sex live outside Graubünden, in the cantons of Aargau, Bern and Lucerne.

Family archive and museum

Caspar de Latour (1862–1949) had stipulated in his will that the cultural assets from four centuries, in particular the family archive, were to be looked after and preserved as an undistributed legacy by the respective owners of the Latour house in Breil / Brigels as a cultural and historical landmark. The life of the Latour as officers in foreign services, holders of important political offices for four centuries and their self-confident wives is documented there in the private, but publicly accessible, small museum and Latour archive.

Representative

  • Ludwig Latour, mentioned in 1473 as a resident of the Marmarola Meier Tower in Breil / Brigels
  • Ludwig Latour, in 1596 the family's first governor
  • Ludwig de Latour (* 1616, † March 22, 1684), Mayor of the Cadi, in 1654 first Latour as district judge of the Upper Confederation.
  • Adalbert Ludwig de Latour (* December 27, 1657, † November 9, 1742), Landammann of the Cadi, district judge of the Upper Confederation, governor of Maienfeld
  • Caspar Deodat de Latour (born November 22, 1677, † January 15, 1750), Landammann of the Cadi, representative at the Bundestag and at the Congress of the Three Leagues, Chargé d'affaires of the French envoy in Bunds.
  • Caspar Theodosius de Latour (born November 11, 1782, † December 13, 1855), officer in the service of Spain, the federal army and in the guard of Louis XVIII. and Charles X , General of the Pope, holder of the Order of Pius
  • Peter Anton de Latour (born November 23, 1778, † March 31, 1864), Mayor of the Cadi, district judge, representative of the Diet, administrator of the Diocese of Chur, president of the Court of Appeal of the Upper Confederation. Pioneer of the Romansh press ( Il Grischun Romontsch ) and Romansh playwright.
  • Alois de Latour (born August 5, 1805, † August 11, 1875), Mayor of the Cadi, district judge, councilor, council of states, board of directors of the United Swiss Railways.
  • Caspar de Latour (born February 12, 1827, † February 21, 1861), Mayor of the Disentis district, Graubünden government councilor, councilor of states, national councilor, lieutenant colonel, inspector for Appenzell, St. Gallen, Glarus.

literature

  • Valentin Theus-Bieler: The relationship between the Junker families von Castelberg von Disentis and the de Latour von Brigels in the Free State of the Three Leagues: a contribution to 200 years of Graubünden's entry into the Confederation in 1803 and to the political structure in the Free State of the Three Leagues of 1512-1797. In: Familienforschung Schweiz: Jahrbuch, 2002, pp. 9–24: ill.
  • Peter Anton de Latour: From Bünden: historical notes on the war and land storms of 1799. Compiled from personal experience or from reliable sources in May of 1849. Ivo Berther (Ed.). - In: Yearbook of the Historical Society of Graubünden, 132, 2002, pp. 75–127: ill.
  • Valentin Theus-Bieler: The restoration and redesign of the archive of the de Latour family from Breil / Brigels. Verlag Theus-Bieler, 2000. - 43 sheets: Ill.
  • Swiss Gender Book 5, 345–350
  • A. Collenberg: The Latour family from Brigels , Liz. Freiburg 1973
  • V. Theus: The portrait collection of the de Latour family in the Latour archive in Breil / Brigels , 1978
  • A. Collenberg: The de Latour von Brigels in the Bündnerpolitik of the 19th century , 1982
  • A. Färber: A patrician family in a farming village: The Latour archive in Breil / Brigels , in Terra Grischuna , 2005, No. 6, 72–75

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bündner Wappenbuch des Vorderrheintal, by Gieri Casura, 1937