Neuburg Castle
The Neuburg
The Neuburg Castle is a ruined hill fort southwest of Untervaz in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It is located on the left side of the Rhine about 50 meters above the valley floor on a steep rock head.
In the Middle Ages the main road leading to the villages on the right side of the Rhine. Therefore, no customs dues were associated with the possession of the castle. Today, the ruins are walking along a narrow street (no traffic ) easily accessible.
Plant
The facility consists of a large fortified palace and a preserved only in remains of city walls on the west and north sides. This enclosed a courtyard with a cistern. The castle gate was on the west side. The well-preserved palace is among the largest of its kind in Raetia.
The Neuburg stands out because of its unusual size; the four-storey palace is in plan a rectangle from 12 to 29 meters. The wall thickness is down to 1.5 meters and decreases towards the top. Inside two walls separating the building into three approximately equal parts. Mountain side, introduces about two meters high altitude input into the central part of the castle.
The lowest three rooms were not connected by doors, but from above by separate wooden stairs or stairs. Given the sparse window slits should these spaces have served mainly as storage facilities, may also from time to time as a prison.
The upper three floors are developed equal. Alcoves and bay windows have an abortion in the northern part to the fact that he must have been inhabited. A missing wall plaster can be explained by a now vanished Holzgetäfer. In the middle of the kitchen is indicated by two outward leading riprap. On the south side was a room with stove heating. A window niche contains engravings from the Middle Ages; recognizable are armed horsemen and various animals. The drawings were discovered in 1984 on the occasion of securing work on behalf of the Swiss castle Association. The doors on the outer wall may have led either to abortion or bay windows on a wooden porch.
Hardly existing debris to leave the building around to the conclusion that the masonry of the tower has been preserved up to the original height. As roof construction is most likely a gable roof to the longitudinal axis in question.
The rooms are connected with metal conductors. The westernmost of the three rooms in the palace is filled with debris.
History
The castle grounds include a monumental construction with handsome interior woodwork in the late period of castle building in Raetia. It is still unclear whether the castle has been constructed to replace an older, disappeared building.
The Neuburg was probably built around 1300 by the Thumb von Neuburg family. Their headquarters was the same Neuburg ( Kobach ) in Vorarlberg. When the thumbs are first published in the area of Chur, is not known. Probably they took up residence in the early 13th century in Untervaz and there built the castle Rappenstein.
Documented the Neuburg is first mentioned in 1345. It was about an agreement between the two brothers Siegfried and Johann Thumb and the Bishop of Chur. Siegfried and John came for three years in the service of the Bishop and had him the castle keep open ". ... Our gemainer vesti diu haisset the Nüwburg " in 1360 the castle was mortgage by way of to the brothers Heinz and Martin Buwix, with Austria a service contract had completed and promised to serve with two helmets and the fortresses New Aspermont, Flums and Neuburg one year.
From 1385 the Thumb von Neuburg owners of the castle were back. 1396 complained Baron Ulrich Brun of Rhazuns that he " Frik Tumb Ems sin vich ze Emptz genomic and getriben to the Nüwenburg have ". Around 1400, Johann von Neuburg entered the suzerainty of the bishop of Chur, which made him politically from the bishopric dependent.
1450 came the reign of the Ravensburger merchant family Mötteli of Rappenstein, in possession of the castle Rappenstein was. 1496 sold Mötteli the castle and reign for 2150 florins to Bishop Ortlieb of Chur, which began as Lendy Hans Vogt on the Neuburg.
As on November 11, 1577 from bishop and the cathedral chapter, they sold together with the rule of rights for 6000 guilders the community Untervaz, Neuburg was already in ruins. So you must have been abandoned during the 16th century.