Strassberg Castle

Churwalden, Switzerland

The castle was built in the 12th century to guard the road from Chur over the alpine passes. The oldest part of the castle, the ring wall, was built in the second half of the 12th century. The main tower was added in the early 13th century. The Lords of Strassberg first appear in the historical record in 1253.

The ring wall around the main castle originally had a residential building along the north side and still shows signs of windows and privies. In the 13th century a large, square, four-story tower was added on the west side of the ring wall. East of the main ring wall was another, larger ring wall which may have included a gate house. Very little of this outer wall remains and it is unclear how it connected to the main castle.

The castle is first mentioned in a record in 1275 as castrum dictum Strasceberch and at that time it was owned by the powerful Freiherr von Vaz. The Strassberg family appear to have been ministerialis, unfree knights in service to a higher noble, or vassals of the Vaz family. Strassberg castle allowed the Vaz to collect taxes from trade along the road. In addition, it protected nearby Churwalden Abbey, which was the burial place of the family. After the extinction of the Vaz family, in 1339, the castle was inherited by the Counts of Toggenburg.

The Toggenburg counts received imperial permission to establish a customs station at Strassberg in April 1348. However, the Bishop of Chur objected and by December of the same year, the Toggenburg permission was revoked. Over sixty years later, in 1413, they were able to acquire customs rights from Emperor Sigismund, which when the bishop objected, ended up with Zürich having to arbitrate between the Toggenburgs and the bishop.

In 1360 the last Strassberg died out and the castle passed fully to the Toggenburgs. For the next three quarters of a century several different Toggenburg vassals held Strassberg as a fief. When the last Toggenberg count, Frederick VII, died the castle was inherited by the Counts of Montfort. Probably due to the power of the League of the Ten Jurisdictions Monfort granted the town of Churwalden its freedom and a promise that the castle would always stand open to Churwalden and that the vogt would only live in the castle if the town granted its permission. In 1466 the Counts of Montfort sold the castle to Archduke Sigismund of Austria. A few years later, in 1471 Sigismund sold the castle to Ulrich von Matsch and then inherited it back in 1479.

The castle began to fall into ruin and in 1491 Vogt Disch Ammann von Rhäzüns reported that the castle was somewhat damaged. On 5 March 1499, during the Swabian War, the castle was burned by retreating League troops to prevent it from falling into Austrian hands. By the 16th century it was already a ruin.

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Address

Schlössliweg 7, Churwalden, Switzerland
See all sites in Churwalden

Details

Founded: 12th century
Category: Castles and fortifications in Switzerland

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.3/5 (based on Google user reviews)

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User Reviews

Nicole Trüllinger (8 months ago)
Parkplatz vorhanden. Spielplatz mit Grill und Spielgeräten direkt daneben und frische Quelle. Wunderschön
Rob Dee (9 months ago)
Tropinova AG (15 months ago)
Alte Burg mit interessanter Geschichte. Ist zugänglich, aber man kann den Burgturm nicht besteigen. 1275 gehörte die Burg den Freiherren von Vaz, denn Walter V. von Vaz nahm sie von den Besitzungen aus, die er für den Fall erbenlosen Todes ans Hochstift Churwaldenübertrug. Er hatte die Burg seiner Gemahlin Liutgard von Kirchberg als Morgengabe geschenkt. Wann und wie die Feste in die Hände der Vazer gelangt ist, bleibt ungewiss. Denkbar ist, dass die Burg ursprünglich Zentrum einer kleinen selbständigen Herrschaft war und erst nachträglich vazisch wurde. Sie kann aber auch von den Vazern errichtet und später einem Ministerialengeschlecht übertragen worden sein, das sich nach der Festung Strassberg nannte. 1295 traten die Herren von Strassberg jedenfalls als vazische Ministeriale auf. Wegen der Lage an den Passrouten und wegen des nahen Klosters Churwalden, wo die Vazer ihre Grablege hatten, spielte Strassberg für sie eine wichtige Rolle. Wie lange die Herren von Strassberg auf der Burg sassen, ist ungewiss. Nach dem Aussterben der Vazer gegen 1339 gelangte die Burg durch Erbschaft über Kunigunde von Vaz an ihren Gemahl Friedrich V. von Toggenburg. Unterhalb der Burg lag eine Zollstation, die wohl die Toggenburger errichtet hatten und sich gegen den Willen des Churer Bischofs von Kaiser Karl IV. am 30. April 1348 übertragen liessen. Doch noch im gleichen Jahr erfolgte der Widerruf.
Jannick Grain (18 months ago)
Schöne, gemütliche Grillstelle
Rico Rellstab (2 years ago)
Liegt auf dem Wanderwege von Malix nach Churwalden / Lenzerheide. Hat bei der Burg eine alte Holzsägerr
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Wawel Hill – a Jurassic limestone rock, a dominant feature in the landscape of Kraków, have provided a safe haven for people who have settled here since the Paleolithic Age. It is supposed that the Slav people started living on Wawel hill as early as the 7th century. Early medieval legends tell stories about a dreadful dragon that lived in a cave on Wawel Hill, about his slayer Krakus, and about the latter’s daughter Wanda, who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German knight. Towards the end of the first millennium A.D Wawel began to play the role of the centre of political power.In the 9th century it became the principal fortified castrum of the Vislane tribe. The first historical ruler of Poland, Miesco I (c.965-992) of the Piast dynasty as well as his successors: Boleslas the Brave (992-1025) and Miesco II (1025-1034) chose Wawel Hill as one of their residences.

At that time Wawel became one of the main Polish centres of Christianity. The first early Romanesque and Romanesque sacral buildings were raised here, including a stone cathedral that was erected after the bishopric of Kraków was established in the year 1000.

During the reign of Casimir the Restorer (1034-1058) Wawel became a significant political and administrative centre for the Polish State. Casimir’s son, Boleslas the Bold (1058-1079) began the construction of a second Romanesque cathedral, which was finished by Boleslas the Wrymouth (1102-1138). In his last will of 1138, this prince divided Poland into districts, and provided that Kraków was to be the residence of the senior prince. In 1291 the city of Kraków along with Wawel Hill temporarily fell under the Czech rule, and Wenceslas II from the Premysl dynasty was crowned King of Poland in Wawel cathedral.

In 1306 the Duke of Kuyavia Ladislas the Short (1306-1333) entered Wawel and was crowned King of Poland in the Cathedral in 1320. It was the first historically recorded coronation of a Polish ruler on Wawel Hill. Around that time, at the initiative of Ladislas the Short, the construction of the third Gothic cathedral began, the castle was expanded and the old wooden and earthen fortifications were replaced by brick ones. The tomb of Ladislas the Short in the cathedral started a royal necropolis of Polish kings in Krakow.The last descendant of the Piast dynasty, Casimir the Great (1333-1370) brought Wawel to a state of unprecedented splendour. In 1364 the expanded gothic castle witnessed the marriage of Casimir’s granddaughter Elizabeth to Charles IV accompanied by a famous convention of kings and princes, subsequently entertained by a rich burgher Wierzynek. The accession to the throne in 1385 of Jadwiga from the Hungarian dynasty of Andegavens, and her marriage to a Lithuanian prince Ladislas Jagiello (1386-1434) started another era of prosperity for Wawel. The royal court employed local and western European artists and also Rus painters. During the reign of Casimir Jagiellon (1447-1492) the silhouette of the hill was enriched by three high brick towers: the Thieves’ Tower, the Sandomierz Tower and the Senatorial Tower. The first humanists in Poland and tutors to the king’s sons: historian Jan Długosz and an Italian by the name Filippo Buonacorsi (also known as Callimachus) worked there at that time.

The Italian Renaissance arrived at Wawel in the early 16th century. King Alexander (1501-1506) and his brother Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548) commissioned the construction of a new palace in place of the Gothic residence, with an impressive large courtyard with arcaded galleries which was completed about 1540. Sigismund’s patronage also left an indelible impression in the cathedral, where a family chapel was erected, known today as Sigismund’s Chapel - the work of Bartolomeo of Berrecci Florence, and through various foundations, one of which was that of a large bell, called the Sigismund to commemorate the king. Close artistic and cultural relations with Italy were strengthened in 1518 by the king’s marriage to Bona Sforza. Alongside Italian artists, German architects, wood workers, painters and metal smiths worked for the king. The last descendant of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572), enriched the castle’s interiors with a magnificent collection of tapestries woven in Brussels. In the “Golden Age” of Polish culture Wawel became one of the main centres of humanism in Europe.

The reign of Sigismund III Waza (1587-1632) also made a strong impression on the history of Wawel. After a fire in the castle in 1595 the king rebuilt the burned wing of the building in the early Baroque style. The relocation of the royal court to Warsaw was the cause of a slow but nevertheless steady deterioration in the castle’s condition. The monarchs visited Kraków only occasionally. Restoration of the castle was undertaken during the reign of John III Sobieski, the Wettins and Stanislas Augustus to counteract neglect.

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