Switzerland · 8th century
Jörgenberg Castle is a castle in the municipality of Waltensburg/Vuorz of the Canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Jörgenberg Castle was built in the 8th century as a fortified church, on lands donated by the Frankish kings. In the 765 testament of Bishop Tello it was referred to as a castellum on Jörgenberg hill. At the beginning of the 9th century it was called ecclesia sancti Georgii in Castello or St. George's Church in a Castle. The current castle and church were probably built on the site of an earlier walled church. The timbers in the bell tower have been dated to 1070. Over the following centuries the church became a medieval feudal castle and in 1265 the main tower was completed.
In the 14th century the castle appears in the historical record in the possession of the Freiherren von Fry(i)berg, who were vassals of the powerful Vaz family. In 1333 a coalition of religious and secular lords fought against the Vaz and their vassals, including the Frybergs. Both Jörgenberg and the nearby village and castle of Siat were captured by the coalition. The peace treaty on 1333 returned the castles, but the Freiherr von Rhäzüns had some type of a claim on it. However, a few years later the last member of the Vaz family, Donat, died leaving the Frybergs without a powerful patron. To avoid losing their estates, they sold Siat and Jörgenberg to the Dukes of Austria and then received them back as a fief.
In 1342 the last male heir of the Fryberg family, Reinher, died and the Austrians gave the castle to the Counts of Werdenberg. The Freiherr von Rhäzüns demanded the castles based on his claim from 1333 and began attacking the Austrians in the region. During the fighting the main tower was burned. The peace treaty of 1343 placed the fate of the castle in the hands of an arbitrator, who granted the castle to Rhäzüns.
Beginning around 1351 the Rhäzüns family rebuilt the burned tower and added a palas to the north-west corner. In 1378 they bought the nearby Herrschaft of Grünenfels and combined the two into the Herrschaft of Jörgenberg. They appointed vogts to administer the herrschaft for the following century. In 1458 Jörgenberg passed to the Counts von Zollern. The local farmers and villagers disliked the foreign Swabian Zollerns and refused to pay them homage and often rose up in rebellion.
Text adapted from “Jörgenberg Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Jörgenberg Castle ranks #6,432 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #97 of the 213 mapped in Switzerland. Founded 765, it is older than 95% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 48 atlas entries founded in the 8th century. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Winterthur, 86 km away. It is one of the 26 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Graubünden. See how Switzerland compares in the castle statistics.
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