Klingenhorn Castle

Klingenhorn Castle
	Malans
	Ruins of Klingenhorn Castle
	Klingenhorn Castle Klingenhorn Castle
Coordinates	46°59′39″N9°34′46.46″E / 46.99417°N 9.5795722°E Coordinates: 46°59′39″N9°34′46.46″E / 46.99417°N 9.5795722°E
Type	hill castle
Code	CH-GR
Height	934 m above the sea
Site information
Condition	ruin
Site history
Built	13th century

Last updated April 15, 2019

Klingenhorn Castle is a ruined castle in the municipality of Malans of the Canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.

A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages by predominantly the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls and arrowslits, were commonplace.

Municipalities are the lowest level of administrative division in Switzerland. Each municipality is part of one of the Swiss cantons, which form the Swiss Confederation. In most cantons municipalities are also part of districts or other sub-cantonal administrative divisions.

Malans is a municipality in the Landquart Region in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.

History

While nothing is known about the castle's foundation, it was probably built in the 13th century perhaps for the Lords of Vaz^[1] or of Aspermont.^[2] It was probably held by a ministerialis family, unfree knights in service to a higher noble. By 1372 it was owned by the von Matsch family, who offered it as collateral for 200 marks from Rudolf von Underwegen. Part of the agreement stipulated that the castle must remain open to the Matsch family at any time. In 1420 it was mentioned as the property of Ulrich Seger, the vogt and judge over Malans, but the castle appears to have been uninhabitable at that time. It appears that the castle was probably gutted by a fire. By 1441 it appears to have been a ruin. Around 1470 the Schlandersberg family acquired the castle and in 1497 Deipold von Schlandersburg granted the ruins and the castle hill to Hans Sutter of Malans. However, if he was to rebuild the castle he had to return the hill to them. The castle was never rebuilt.^[1]

Ministerialis were people raised up from serfdom to be placed in positions of power and responsibility. In the Holy Roman Empire, in the High Middle Ages, the word and its German translations, Ministeriale(n) and Dienstmann, came to describe those unfree nobles who made up a large majority of what could be described as the German knighthood during that time. What began as an irregular arrangement of workers with a wide variety of duties and restrictions rose in status and wealth to become the power brokers of an empire. The ministeriales were not legally free people, but held social rank. Legally, their liege lord determined whom they could or could not marry, and they were not able to transfer their lords' properties to heirs or spouses. They were, however, considered members of the nobility since that was a social designation, not a legal one. Ministeriales were trained knights, held military responsibilities and surrounded themselves with the trappings of knighthood, and so were accepted as noblemen. Both women and men held the ministerial status, and the laws on ministeriales made no distinction between the sexes in how they were treated.

In lending agreements, collateral is a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan. The collateral serves as a lender's protection against a borrower's default and so can be used to offset the loan if the borrower fails to pay the principal and interest satisfactorily under the terms of the lending agreement.

A Vogt in the Holy Roman Empire was a title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice over a certain territory. The territory or area of responsibility of a Vogt is called a Vogtei. The term also denotes a mayor of a village.

Castle site

The castle is located on a hill above the village of Malans. The ruins are visible from the valley floor. The tower is protected by a ditch which encircles much of the hilltop. The main tower still shows the Pietra Rasa construction, where the mortar that holds the rough stones together is also used as a plaster to them. After plastering with mortar, lines are incised into the mortar to give the appearance of regular bricks or stones. Only three stories of the tower are still standing and a high entrance on the second story, which was later walled up, is still visible. Two fireplaces built into the walls can still be seen. The castle was protected with a dry stone wall, parts of which are still standing.^[1]

Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their unique construction method, which is characterized by the presence of a load-bearing façade of carefully selected interlocking stones.

Gallery

Holes for wooden beams to support the floor inside the tower
Interior of the tower
Exterior view of the tower entrance
Interior of the entrance
A window inside the tower
Interior of the tower

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References

1 2 3 "Burg Klingenhorn". www.burgenwelt.ch. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
↑ "Schloss Klingenhorn". www.swisscastles.ch. Retrieved 19 June 2017.

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[BW-1] 1 2 3 "Burg Klingenhorn". www.burgenwelt.ch. Retrieved 19 June 2017.

[SC-2] "Schloss Klingenhorn". www.swisscastles.ch. Retrieved 19 June 2017.