Urgiz Castle

The Urgiz ruin is a dilapidated castle in the municipality of Densbüren in the Swiss canton of Aargau. It is located northeast of the village on a narrow, steep rocky ridge, at an altitude of 577 m above sea level and about 120 meters above the valley floor.

It is not known when the castle was built, but it was no later than the 12th century. The first historically confirmed owners were the Lords of Uriols, mentioned in 1277, who had received the castle as a fief from the Bishop of Strasbourg. The fief also included the small lordship of Urgiz with the villages of Densbüren and Asp. After 1315, there are no more records of the Lords of Uriols; the later owners are not known. The Basel earthquake of 1356 caused great damage.

No later than 1429, the Effinger family from Brugg acquired the castle fief. In 1444, the castle passed to the Rätz family from Säckingen, and in 1475 to the Hasfurter family from Lucerne. In 1502, by which time the castle had already fallen into ruin, the city of Bern acquired the lordship of Urgiz and established a high watch there. This was manned for about three hundred years and was in visual contact with the high watches on the Homberg near Veltheim and the Gislifluh near Thalheim. In 1996/97, the remains of the castle walls were uncovered and preserved.

Remains of the curtain wall and the round tower of the castle complex have been preserved.