Top 6 Castles around Thüringerberg

Friedrich walked through this gate.

Archduke Friedrich IV of Tyrol fled to Bludenz through this gate after his condemnation at the Council of Constance in 1416

The Milka production surrounds everything with a light cocoa/chocolate smell 😋

Characteristic of the city for the place worth visiting🤩

Castle ruins (Welsch-)Ramschwag, Nenzing Welsch-Ramschwag Castle was built between 1270 and 1290 by the Knights of Ramschwag, a noble family from the canton of St. Gallen (CH). Their family castle is in Häggenschwil, Canton St. Gallen. Before 1352 the castle came into the possession of the lords of Landenberg-Greifensee. In 1352 it was sold to Count Rudolf von Montfort-Feldkirch. When the Werdenbergs attacked the castle in 1360 as a result of a feud with the Montfort family, Hartmann von Prasberg from an Allgäu noble family was castellan. He defended the keep for many hours until help came from Feldkirch and the attackers were successfully driven away. In the same year, Welsch-Ramschwag Castle came to the Habsburgs. The castle did not last long, because angry Walgau farmers destroyed it on the evening of September 28, 1405 during the Appenzell War and it has been a ruin ever since. At the same time, other castles in the Walgau (Jagdberg, Blumenegg and Rosenegg) also went up in flames. The almost square complex had an elevated, central residential tower with simple light slits and a surrounding curtain wall. This was 1.20 meters thick and included the courtyard with an area of about 42 x 38 meters. In the west, two artificial wall-ditch systems were built as obstacles to the approach. As is the case today, the entrance to the main gate was in the east. The first attempts at restoration date back to 1912. Another attempt failed in 1925/26 due to a lack of funds. In 1947, parts of the ring wall were destroyed by the construction of a ski jump, which is now closed again. From 1997 to 2000 the ruins were restored in several stages by the market town of Nenzing in cooperation with the Federal Monuments Office and volunteers. The Castle Committee of the State Museum Association carried out the graphic reconstruction of the keep and the floor plan. Text / source: Vorarlberg Tourismus GmbH, Poststraße 11, 6850 Dornbirn https://www.vorarlberg.travel/poi/nenzing-burgruine-welsch-ramschwag/

Upper gate Built at the end of the 15th century, rebuilt in 1774 and 1920, it is also called Herzog-Friedrich-Tor or Feldkircher Tor. In 1416, Duke Friedrich IV (with an empty pocket) fled from Constance through the Upper Gate into the city; He was taken in in Bludenz and brought safely over the Arlberg by the town's citizens. The Bludenz City Museum is located in the Upper Gate. A few meters away, a covered church staircase built in the 17th century, one of the five castle staircases, leads up to the hill to St. Laurentius Church and Gayenhofen Castle. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bludenz

Schloss Gayenhofen is located in the architectural ensemble with the Laurentiuskirche, dominating the town of Bludenz in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. It is a successor structure to the former Bludenz Castle. The Counts of Werdenberg built a castle complex between 1222 and 1245 as the center of the County of Werdenberg-Heiligenberg, or the Lordship of Bludenz. This made Bludenz a fortified town in Vorarlberg in the Middle Ages, alongside Bregenz and Feldkirch. From 1377/78 to 1418, Count Albrecht III. von Werdenberg-Heiligenberg resided within its walls. After the Werdenberg feud, the town and castle of Bludenz fell to the Habsburgs. In 1448, Duke Sigmund exchanged both for the Lordship of Rotund with Ulrich von Schlandersberg. In 1491, the castle was destroyed by fire. Baron Franz Andreas von Sternbach (1675–1755), who had previously built Schloss Wolfsthurn, had Schloss Gayenhofen built in 1746/1747 by his administrator Johann Josef Gassmayr, with the local bailiff Franz Josef Gilm as local construction manager, using demolition stones from the old castle, with master builder and stonemason Andreas Schmied, who had previously extended the nave of the adjacent Laurentiuskirche. The experience of the mentioned individuals did not require an external architect for the simple design of the castle. On May 5, 1746, the foundation stone of the new castle was laid with the Provicar and parish priest of Bürs, Christian Battlogg, as well as with three Capuchins. The mention of Johann Caspar Bagnato in various sources as an architect is unsubstantiated for Schloss Gayenhofen; however, Bagnato was present at a guild meeting in Schnifis on December 17, 1745, where he accepted Andreas Moll as an apprentice and likely also recruited workers for his construction site at Kornhaus Rohrschach from the Abbey of St. Gallen. In 1936, the town of Bludenz bought the castle and handed it over to the state of Vorarlberg in 1959. Between 1960 and 1963, the castle was remodeled again. The north wing was demolished, thereby opening the previously closed, square inner courtyard, and the castle was adapted on October 26, 1963, as the administrative building of the Bludenz district authority. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Gayenhofen

The castle ruins are directly related to the Ramschwag castle ruins near Häggenschwil/St.Gallen CH (see information board).