The ruins of the former Splügen Castle (german: Burg Splügen) lie east of the village of Splügen in the Rheinwald forest in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. It is the only castle in the valley.

Location

The ruins lie just under one kilometre east of the village on a small hill below the former valley road that ran from the

Via Mala Viamala or Via Mala ( Romansh: literally, "bad path") is a narrow gorge along the river Hinterrhein between Zillis-Reischen and Thusis in the Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland, as well as the ancient and notorious pathway which traverses ...

over the Splügen and San Bernardino Passes. It is an easy ten-minute walk from the village along a lane. It is not possible to drive to the castle.

Description

The ruins of a fortified, double-winged ''

palas A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval ''Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson, ...

'' and an

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin incinctus: girdled, surrounded) is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. For ...

(''Bering'') are visible on the northern side by the old road. Three of the walls, which are well over a metre thick, have survived; the east wall facing the valley has collapsed. The

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

s have a clear border (''Kantenschlag''). One additional wall divides the site into an eastern and western half. The

elevated entrance An elevated entrance is a type of entrance, common in the design of medieval castles, that is not accessible from ground level, but lies at the level of an upper storey. The elevated entrance is the lowest and frequently the only way of ent ...

with its

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...

way, with jambs made of

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

, lies at about four metres above the ground on the northern side and leads to the first floor.

Putlog hole Putlog holes or putlock holes are small holes made in the walls of structures to receive the ends of poles (small round logs) or beams, called putlogs or putlocks, to support a scaffolding. Putlog holes may extend through a wall to provide staging ...

s on the exterior show where the staircase access was. The doors turned in a carefully hewn out stone ring and could be locked with a bar. In the lower two storeys were cellars and storerooms that were only lit by narrow window slits. In the western area of the third floor were the living quarters, as can be seen from the remains of weathered windows with their niches for seating and from the fireplace. An exit leads out to a small

balcony A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

or garderobe. Nothing is known about the shape of the roof. The kitchen was in the eastern, less well lit area. The northern curtain wall is filled with rubble. It is possible that stables and outbuildings stood here. There was probably an external

portal Portal often refers to: * Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...

in the, now collapsed, eastern wall. In the area of the old road there are traces of a barrier wall called a ''Letzi'' guarding the valley further upstream.

History

The architectural form of Splügen Castle, with its door and window shapes and doorjambs made of tuff, match well to the second half of the 13th century; and it may have been built around 1275. In that period the valley in the Rheinwald was part of the territory of the County of

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which, as a

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...

of the

Prince-Bishopric of Chur The Prince-Bishopric of Chur (german: Hochstift Chur, Fürstbistum Chur, Bistum Chur) was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire, and had Imperial immediacy. The Prince-Bishopric of Chur controlled contiguous land from the city o ...

, was given to the barons of Vaz and, later, the

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

s of Werdenberg. The barons of Sax-Misox tried to manage their territory of Misox over the San Bernardino by settling Walsers there. In 1274 they wrote out a letter (''Schirmbrief'') in

Mesocco Mesocco ( Lombard: ''Mesòch'') is a municipality in the Moesa Region in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. History The first human settlement in the area dates back to the Mesolithic era. Stone tools dating to about 6000 BC have been found in the ...

to a group of Walsers. The appearance of Walsers on the border of their territory must have alarmed the barons of Vaz, however they sought to extend their rule into the sparsely populated valleys. In 1277 the Walsers came under the protection of the Vaz family. This suggests that Splügen Castle, together with the ''Letzi'', had been built around 1275 by the ''

Freiherren (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

'' of Vaz in order to put a stop to the advances of the Misox clan. The Walsers clearly felt safer under the lordship of the House of Vaz than under the ords of Sax-Misox on the far side of the pass. Having headed off the incursions of the House of Misox and the expansion of the Walser colony, the castle of Splügen lost its strategic significance. The source material also indicates a short period of use. As early as 1308 a purchase deed simply describes it as a castle site (a ''

Burgstall A ''burgstall'' is a German term referring to a castle of which so little is left that its appearance cannot effectively be reconstructed.

'') and a farmstead: ''"an das Burggstal mit siner gewohnliche hoffraiti"''. So by the early 14th century the castle was clearly already in ruins. In 1462 Jörg of Werdenberg paid the ''

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

'' of Rheinwald a rent for the estate by the castle (''"ab dem guot by der Burg"''), which referred to the old castle of Splügen. Whether the castle was still standing at the time is not known. When the Rheinwald was sold by Jörg of Werdenberg in 1493 to the Milanese army commander,

Gian Giacomo Trivulzio Gian Giacomo Trivulzio (1440 or 1441 – December 5, 1518) was an Italian aristocrat and '' condottiero'' who held several military commands during the Italian Wars. Biography Trivulzio was born in Milan, where he studied, among others, w ...

, Lord of Sax-Misox, the castle of Splügen was no longer mentioned.

Literature

* Fritz Hauswirth: ''Burgen und Schlösser in der Schweiz''. Vol. 8. Neptun, Kreuzlingen, 1972. * Otto P. Clavedetscher, Werner Meyer: ''Das Burgenbuch von Graubünden''. Zürich/Schwäbisch Hall, 1984. * Werner Meyer: ''Burgen der Schweiz''. Band 3. Silva, Zürich, 1983.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Splugen Castle Castles in Graubünden Cultural property of regional significance in Switzerland Grisons

Location

Description

History

See also

Literature

External links