Torre Palas

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Torre Palas
View from the village

View from the village

Alternative name (s): Gate di Pala
Creation time : 12th Century
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Place: San Vittore GR
Geographical location 46 ° 14 '23 .3 "  N , 9 ° 6' 19.3"  O Coordinates: 46 ° 14  '23.3 " N , 9 ° 6' 19.3"  E ; CH1903:  728,551  /  122296
Height: 310  m above sea level M.
Torre Palas (Canton of Graubünden)
Torre Palas

The Torre Palas , also called Tor di Pala , stands above the municipality of San Vittore in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the lower part of the Misox . The name of the fortress is derived from the Pala part of the village below the castle.

construction

The ruin of the hilltop castle stands at 310  m above sea level. M. on two huge boulders. The remains of a rectangular building about 4 × 7 meters in size stand on the smaller, but now barely accessible rock. Probably stood here a two-storey living quarters, with a gabled roof was covered and about 100 years was built the tower. The east gable end with the entrance has been relatively well preserved.

On the larger boulder, separated from the smaller by a deep, four-meter-wide cliff, stands the well-preserved rectangular tower, presumably a donjon , with its six floors made of granite stones. Its base measures 5 × 8 meters, the greatest wall thickness is 1.5 meters. A wooden gallery led from the north to the entrance on the south side above the crevice. The door on the north side was later broken out. Today the tower can no longer be entered.

Continuous beam holes indicate the location of the lower four floors. A barrel vault on the fifth floor led to the top floor with a weir plate , which was added together with the fifth around 1400. The tower was covered with a flat gable roof resting on battlements . The lower four floors were illuminated through narrow notch windows; arched windows have been preserved on the floors above . Large beam holes show that a wooden arbor led around the fifth floor, which was accessible through a door on the south wall. On the west side there was a toilet on the third floor and a rubble stone on the fifth .

For reasons of space, the economic buildings were probably located at the foot of the castle rock.

history

Documentary information about the building is missing. In 1168 an Albertus de sancte Victore is mentioned, but nothing is known about his residence. It is possible that the complex was built by a local noble family. The castle later came into the possession of the von Sax family , who ruled the valley in the 13th century. In the 14th century the castle served as a residence for an estate manager of the Barons von Sax, in the 15th century a branch line of the von Sax lived there. Presumably the castle was abandoned after it died out and began to crumble.

photos

  • Outbuilding and tower, view from the east

  • North side

  • South side with main entrance

  • Ruin of the residential wing

literature

  • Otto P. Clavadetscher, Werner Meyer : The castle book of Graubünden . Zurich 1984, ISBN 3-280-01319-4
  • Fritz Hauswirth: Castles and palaces in Switzerland. Volume 9. Neptun Verlag. Kreuzlingen, 1973
  • Werner Meyer: Castles of Switzerland. Volume 2. Silva Verlag. Zurich, 1983

Web links

Commons : Torre Palas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files