Top 16 Castles around Scharans

The history of the castle continued after its purchase by the Swiss expatriate community. In 1958, Hovag Domat/Ems, under Dr. Werner Oswald, bought Rhäzüns Castle. Since 1984, it has been owned by Ems-Chemie AG, with residential rights granted to the family of Silvia and Christoph Blocher. Therefore, it is not possible to visit the castle.

This castle is located 250m above the Oden valley. It is privately owned and is very well preserved. Inside there is seating and a fireplace. Entrance fee is 5 francs to help maintain this beautiful castle.

The Höhen Rätien Castle is a hilltop and church castle high on the rock at an altitude of 946 metres above the entrance to the Viamala Gorge. It is located in Sils im Domelschg Hinterrhein Graubünden. It is one of the oldest cultural and settlement sites in Switzerland.

Rietberg Castle stands above Pratval in Doleschg Graubünden. It was built in 1225 as a hilltop castle at an altitude of 723 metres.

Ruin of Alt-Süns 1216, the oldest Vaz castle in Domleschg In 1216, the powerful Barons of Vaz built their first castle in the mild Domleschg outside their ancestral castle Nivaigl in Vaz, from there fifty years later they built Ortenstein and even later Neu-Süns, which we usually call Canova. With the heir Ursula von Vaz of the last Baron, the property went to the Counts of Werdenberg-Sargans. In the Schams Feud of 1451, the barely inhabited castles of Alt-Süns and Neu-Süns collapsed when half of the tower was undermined. Since then they have been a picturesque eye-catcher in the Domleschg castle landscape. Text: Pro Castellis https://pro-castellis.ch/ruine-alt-s%C3%BCns-1216

Fürstenau - town in miniature An episcopal Meierhof as the origin of Fürstenau The episcopal power in Domleschg was probably already developed in the epoch of the Frankish Empire, in the first millennium. The incompletely preserved Reichsurbar (list of goods and taxes of the imperial rule) from 831 shows that a ministry Tumliasca (bishop's administrative apparatus Domleschg) existed. This faced a vicedominus with judicial authority. It is conceivable that the episcopal administration was originally based in Hohenrätien ob Sils i.D. had, but had been moved to one of the three Carolingian royal courts of Scharans, Almens and Tomils early on. Presumably an administrative officer (Meier) of the bishop took up residence in Baumgartenland Maros near Fürstenau. The name Maros goes back to the Latin word ad majoranem, the accusative of maiora (= dairy farm or farmstead). From this, the name Mairaus developed via ad maioranes, which as a name for Fürstenau first appears in documents in the first half of the 12th century. The development of the city In the course of the 14th century, the sovereign large castle acquired a modest urban character as a result of the denser settlement of the outer bailey. A document from 1383 testifies that the main castle was in front of the bridge to a bailey (lat. atrium). Peasant and artisan subjects lived here, who were responsible for the supply of the lords of the castle, and, as the House of Stoffel shows, apparently also knightly servants. Architectural and political developments are interrelated. In the middle of the 14th century, the diocese of Chur not only managed to obtain market privileges, but also a place of jurisdiction for blood justice. King Charles IV had Bishop Ulrich V (1331-1355) present a diploma on May 13, 1354, which gave Fürstenau the right to jail, sticks and gallows, as well as the holding of two annual markets on St. Michael's and St. George's Day . This meant that Fürstenau had also become a city in a legal sense. Its expansion from 1354 coincides with that of the castle mentioned in 1272. The town was not only of great importance as a trading and market place, it had also risen to become the center of princely possessions in the upper part of the Domleschg. So the castle has clearly proven itself as a strong attraction. Around 1300, a territorialization process began in the Graubünden area, which had a significant influence on political events up until after 1450. Noble dominions such as that of the Lords of Rhäzüns supplemented or overlaid the episcopal dominion. Neither party had a closed territory. As early as the first half of the 14th century, Fürstenau was drawn into the maelstrom of the episcopal power struggles. The few surviving documentary mentions of Fürstenau should be seen in this context: In 1333 the bishop promised the lords of Rhäzüns 1000 marks, four hundred of them through Fürstenau Castle, which was then pledged. In 1347 the castle served as security so that the bishop would go back into the captivity of the Count of Tyrol, from which he had been released. Fürstenau was then handed over to Walter von Stadion. In 1351 an arbitral tribunal had to decide the dispute over Fürstenau Castle between the bishop and the Counts of Montfort. Finally, in 1367, Fürstenau was occupied by the cathedral chapter and the bishop's vassals. In 1387 it regained great importance in connection with the expansion of the Septimer Pass by Johann von Castelmur. Text: City of Fürstenau https://www.fuerstenau.ch/Portrait/History/

Rhäzüns Castle (Chastè da Razén in Rhaeto-Romanic) It is not known when the plant or its predecessors were built. A castle probably existed on the site of today's palace as early as the 10th century; A castellum Beneduces et Rezunnes is mentioned in documents of Emperor Otto I and Otto II in the years 960 and 976. The first proven representative of the barons of Rhäzüns was Arnoldus de Ruzunne, who is mentioned in 1137/39 in the Gamertinger documents. The first documented mention of Rhäzüns Castle itself appears in a sales deed from the Disentis monastery from the year 1282. After the death of the last Rhäzünser Georg in 1459, a long succession dispute arose between the Counts of Hohenzollern-Hechingen von Zollern and the Werdenbergers. In 1461 the castle fell to the Zollern family by arbitral award, who pledged it to Conradin von Marmels in 1437. It came into the possession of Maximilian I in 1497 through an exchange for the Haigerloch estate. After the death of Hans von Marmels in 1553, Rhäzüns changed hands several times until 1695. Bartholomäus von Stampa and in 1558 Johannes von Planta followed as pledge holders. In 1695 Austria took over the rule and had it administered by officials. This prevented the Rhäzün rule from being integrated into the politics of the Three Leagues. On December 29, 1809, the rule of Austria passed to France. After the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire, Rhäzüns was initially returned to Austria in 1814 and was added to the canton of Graubünden in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna. It was bought by the last Habsburg administrator, the doctor and magistrate Georg Anton Vieli. It remained in his family's possession until 1927. In the early 1850s, Father Theodosius Florentini set up a girls' school there, which was moved to Rorschach in 1854. After the lessee of the estate had lived in it, the castle stood empty and began to fall into ruin. On December 11, 1926, it was bought and extensively renovated by the «Non-profit cooperative for Swiss abroad holiday home Rhäzüns». Text/Source: Wikipedia https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Rh%C3%A4z%C3%BCns

The castle sits high above Thusis