Campell Castle

Campell or Campi Castle is a castle in the municipality of Sils im Domleschg of the Canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

The castle was probably begun in the early 13th century for the knightly von Campell family. The first mention of the family is from 1289 when Egeno de Campelle appears in a record. The original castle was a four-story bergfried.(Bauphase 1 on drawing) In the 13th or early 14th century it was expanded with a ring wall, gatehouse, ditches and a drawbridge on the west side and a residential wing on the east.(Bauphase 2) However, the Campell family died out in the 14th century. In 1389 the Bishopric of Chur recorded that Bishop Hartmann granted lands that used to be the Campell fief to Hans and Gottfried von Ehrenfels. Though the grant probably did not include the castle, because it wasn't until 1418 that the Bishop granted the castle to Hermann von Schauenstein-Ehrenfels.

During the 15th century, the west wall was raised and had a roof added. The original tower had two more stories added and was topped with crenelations. A large cistern was excavated to the north.(Bauphase 3) Around the middle of the 15th century the castle was given to the Ringg family, but in 1500 it was returned to the Schauenstein family, so it is unclear who renovated the castle.

In the 16th century it was once again rebuilt. The west wall and zwinger were roofed over and became a three-story palas. The old gate in the west was walled up and a new one was added in the south wall. The west wall was extended northward to protect the castle's flank.(Bauphase 4) In 1562 the Schauenberg-Ehrenfels sold the castle to Hans Faschau. A few years later, in 1567, he sold it to Hercules von Salis, whose family held the castle for almost a century. During the Bündner Wirren of the Thirty Years' War the castle was damaged by fire. The west palas was rebuilt in 1635, while the east residential wing was abandoned and became a stable.(Bauphase 5) In 1647 the Salis family sold it to the Freiherr von Schauenstein-Fürstenau. By 1700 it was abandoned, but remained in good condition. By 1900, it had fallen into ruin when the Albula line of the Rhaetian Railway was built over the outer moat. In 1932 the Campell family bought the castle.

Text adapted from “Campell Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Campell Castle ranks #6,721 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #172 of the 200 mapped in Switzerland. Founded c. 1225, it is older than 75% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 825 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 12 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Lugano, 86 km away. It is one of the 24 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Graubünden. See how Switzerland compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗