Friberg Castle (Ruin) (Siat)

Few remains of a tower or a fortified palas made of layered rubble stones have been preserved, with a footprint of approximately 11 by 18 meters. The wall thickness is 1.5 meters. A transverse division of the former building observed by Poeschel is no longer ascertainable.

About seven meters lower to the southeast lies a wide plateau, which shows no traces of superstructures, but remains of a curtain wall following the edge of the terrain.

The Lords of Friberg belonged to the free nobles of the Vorderrhein valley, and the castle formed the center of their dominion. Friedrich von Friberg is documented from 1255 to 1289, who in 1255 fought against the Bishopric of Chur near Domat/Ems together with other Rhaetian lords. Besides Friedrich, only Rainger is known, who appears as deceased in 1343. Apparently, he transferred the dominion of Friberg to Austria and received it back as a fief.

After the extinction of the Freibergers around 1330, the ownership situation is somewhat unclear. Either the castle was granted to Donat von Vaz and, after his death around 1337, came to his daughter Ursula and her husband Rudolf von Werdenberg, or Donat von Vaz made claims to the castle, which his daughter later could not enforce, renounced them in 1342, and received the castle as a fief from Austria in return.

After a feud with the Rhäzünsers, Ursula and her husband had to renounce Friberg and Jörgenberg; both castles came into the possession of the Rhäzünsers in 1343. After an inheritance dispute in 1458 between Georg von Rhäzüns and Jos Niclaus von Zollern – Ursula von Vaz had ceded her rights to her son from her first marriage, Niclaus von Zollern – the latter received the lordships of Friberg and Jörgenberg with the villages of Waltensburg, Andiast, Siat, Rueun, and Schlans.

A contract documented on June 1, 1472, for the lordships of Jörgenberg and Friberg to Bishop Ortlieb von Chur (1458-1491) came about for unknown reasons, because on June 6 of the same year, Jos Niclaus sold the castles to Disentis Monastery. In the course of the 15th century, Friberg Castle was probably abandoned.