New Toggenburg
| New Toggenburg | ||
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 View from the ruins of Neutoggenburg to the Bern Alps |
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| Creation time : | Late 12th century | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Count | |
| Place: | Oberhelfenschwil | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 19 '47.4 " N , 9 ° 6' 46.1" E | |
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Neu-Toggenburg is the ruin of a hilltop castle belonging to the Counts of Toggenburg north of the hamlet and the Wasserfluh pass in the area of the St. Gallen municipality of Oberhelfenschwil in Switzerland .
From the once extensive castle complex of the late 12th century, which was abandoned in 1468 at the latest, only small, sparse remains are preserved, which were uncovered again in 1936, completely overgrown by bushes. The remains of the wall were preserved after they had served as a quarry for a long time and were then forgotten.
history
Neu-Toggenburg Castle was probably built in the late 12th century. Initially it consisted of a brick residential tower . The complex probably only gained importance after 1226, when Count Friedrich I of Toggenburg was murdered and the Toggenburgers had to give up their family seat, Alt-Toggenburg Castle in Kirchberg . After that, the facility was significantly enlarged. A two meter thick curtain wall bordered the castle. A palace was built. The castle was never of strategic importance as it was too remote and difficult to get to. That is why it is rarely mentioned in documents. After the death of the last Count of Toggenburg, Friedrich VII. , The complex was abandoned in 1436. The castle became the property of the Barons of Raron .
In 1468 the Toggenburg and the castle were purchased by the prince abbey of St. Gallen under Abbot Ulrich Rösch von Petermann von Raron . The abbots found no use for the castle and left it to decay. The ruins were used as a quarry by the people of Wasserfluh in the 19th century. Parts of the walls threatened to fall on the hamlet and were therefore torn down. In 1936 the remains of the castle began to be conserved and excavations were carried out. Finds from the excavations are exhibited in the Toggenburg Museum in Lichtensteig .
description
Traces of the curtain wall with the older castle gate , the foundation walls of the palace and the remains of two cisterns are still preserved from the castle . Two inner trenches, which were supposed to protect the presumably old keep, and three trenches in front of the curtain wall can still be seen.
literature
- Thomas Bitterli: Swiss castle guide, including the Principality of Liechtenstein. No. 474, Basel / Berlin 1995
- Toggenburger Blätter for local history. No. 38, 1990, pp. 7-32.
- Christoph Reding: Medieval archeology in the cantons of St. Gallen and Appenzell. In: Middle Ages. 6, 2001, pp. 1–8 (PDF; 7.9 MB).
Individual evidence
- ^ Regula Anna Steinhauser-Zimmermann: Neu-Toggenburg. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ↑ New Toggenburg Castle World. Retrieved September 28, 2018 .