Werdenberg Castle

Werdenberg Castle is located in Werdenberg, a village with historic town rights in the canton of St. Gallen in Eastern Switzerland.

Construction of the keep began before/around 1228 under Count Rudolf von Montfort. Its slightly trapezoidal footprint measures approximately 11 meters on the outside and is consistently about 2 meters thick. In 1232, the palas and the curtain wall were built. The "Knights' Hall," which has remained almost unchanged, dates from this period. The stairwell was only created during the expansion of the castle into a palace.

Around 1230/40, the brothers Rudolf I and Hugo II von Montfort divided their inheritance. Rudolf received the predominantly left-Rhine territory; under him, Werdenberg Castle was probably built. His descendants named themselves "von Werdenberg" after the castle. The castle was the seat of the Counts of Werdenberg from the Heiligenberg side line until Rudolf II (died 1419/21) and Hugo V von Werdenberg died without offspring. After that, the castle frequently changed owners.

In 1483, it, along with the county, came into the possession of Count Johann Peter von Sax-Misox, who sold the lordship and castle two years later to the Swiss canton of Lucerne. Lucerne sold the remote lordship in 1493 to the South Tyrolean barons Georg and Mathis von Castelwart. In 1498, Mathis von Castelwart sold the lordship again to the barons von Hewen. In 1517, Wolfgang and Georg von Hewen sold the lordship and castle to the Swiss canton of Glarus, whereby the Glarus bailiffs, who rotated every three years, resided in the castle from then on.

In 1695, the castle fell victim to a fire during a celebration marking the beginning of the term of office of the new bailiff Johannes Zweifel. It is suspected that the fire broke out in the castle kitchen and then quickly spread to the wooden interior of the keep. In this fire, the 1st and 2nd upper floors of the palas as well as the entire roof structure were destroyed. Already in the winter of the same year, new ceiling beams were installed in the keep.

After the collapse of the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1798, the lordship of Werdenberg temporarily became free and was later assigned to the district of the same name in the Helvetic canton of Linth. After the dissolution of the canton of Linth and the re-establishment of the canton of St. Gallen, the castle and town were assigned to the municipality of Grabs in 1803, with the castle remaining in Glarus possession.

In 1835, Dr. Johann Ulrich Hilty, the father of the famous legal scholar Dr. Carl Hilty (1833–1909), bought the neglected castle. He gradually had the rooms repaired, partially rebuilt, and furnished in a stately manner. Finally, in 1956, Frieda Hilty donated the castle and its furnishings to the canton of St. Gallen, making the castle publicly accessible.