Location: Burggasse 1, Feldkirch Map
Constructed: 1190 by Count of Montfort
Open: May- Oct: 9- 12am, 1:30- 6pm
Jan- Apr: 1-4pm
Entrance Fee: € 6, children €4.50
Tel. +43(5522)71982
Website: www.schattenburg.at
Schattenburg Castle is a medieval fortress perched on a side of a
mountain overlooking a town of Feldkirch below. Schattenburg Castle
was constructed in 1190 by Count Hugo I Montfort who also found a
town of Feldkirch below. Count used it an official seat of his
family as well as to control strategic and quiet lucrative trading
routes to the South and to the East of the castle. During Medieval
Period Schattenburg Castle was unsuccessfully besieged twice. Small
garrison managed to beat back all armies including the one sent by
Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian in 1345. Only with the break out of
Appenzell War (1401- 29) new military technologies finally broke
through the defenses of Schattenburg Castle. Count Friedrich von
Toggenburg brought heavy trebuchets that howled huge boulders
against thick walls, finally breaking them down. After 18 weeks of
constant bombardment Heinrich Walter of Ramschwag along with a
garrison of 38 men had to capitulate on 29 January 1406.
Subsequently Schattenburg Castle was burned down.
Schattenburg Castle was left untouched and without any major
renovations since the early 16th century. Today Schattenburg Castle
houses a and a museum devoted to its history with a collection of
medieval weaponry, religious art and costumes from the time period.
The castle was built around 1200 by Count Hugo (III of Tübingen, I of
Montfort, † 1228), the founder of the town of Feldkirch. In the 14th
century, the castle increasingly became the center of the lordship from
the county of (Montfort-) Feldkirch and thus the successor castle to
Alt-Montfort. It was the ancestral seat of the Counts of Montfort until
1390. After two sieges, the castle remained unconquered until the
Appenzell War. One of the unsuccessful sieges was undertaken by Emperor
Ludwig the Bavarian in 1345.
In 1375 Burgrave Rudolf IV of
Montfort sold the Feldkirch dominion, which was administered from the
Schattenburg, to Duke Leopold III. from the House of Habsburg. After the
death of Rudolf IV of Montfort, the Habsburgs used bailiffs as
administrators of the county.
Under Vogt Count Friedrich VII von
Toggenburg, the allied Swiss and Feldkirchers besieged the castle in the
Appenzell War after the Battle of Stoss in the autumn of 1405. They
managed to set up heavy catapults (Bliden) on the Stadtschrofen above
the complex. After 18 weeks of siege and constant shelling, Heinrich
Walter von Ramschwag, who was defending the Schattenburg with 38 men,
had to capitulate on January 29, 1406. The castle was then burned down.
The reconstruction took place two years later. However, during the
military conflicts between King Sigismund and Duke Friedrich of Austria,
the castle was partially destroyed again in 1415 and 1417.
In
1417, Count Friedrich VII of Toggenburg received the Schattenburg as a
pledge from King Sigismund. Frederick VII of Toggenburg had extensive
expansions carried out on the castle for his feudal court. Under his
administration, the three wings were built, which characterize the
structural shape of the castle to this day.
With the death of
Frederick VII of Toggenburg in 1436, the Schattenburg returned to the
administration of the House of Habsburg. Further extensions and
redesigns were carried out under the bailiff Hans von Königsegg in the
15th century. Further additions were built in the 17th century.
In 1647, at the end of the Thirty Years' War, Swedish troops occupied
the town of Feldkirch and the Schattenburg without a fight. The planned
demolition of the castle and the burning of the city could only be
prevented by paying a high war contribution. At the same time, the town
of Feldkirch undertook to preserve the Schattenburg for the Swedish
crown. With the end of the Thirty Years' War the Schattenburg lost its
military importance.
In 1773 the bailiwick office was relocated
from the castle to the town of Feldkirch. This was the beginning of the
structural decline of the complex, although the bailiwick administrator
Franz Philipp Gugger von Staudach lived in the castle until 1794. From
1778 to 1825 the castle was used as a prison - with 6 arrests and an
interrogation room. The jailer lived in the castle at that time. At the
same time, several unsuccessful demolition auctions took place in 1799,
1806 and 1812.
In 1825 the castle was acquired by the town of
Feldkirch. It served the city as barracks from 1831 to 1850 (earlier
barracks were used in 1803 and 1816). In the second half of the 19th
century, the castle accommodated the poorhouse, which existed here until
1914.
The castle was saved and revived by the Museum and Homeland
Protection Association for Feldkirch and the surrounding area, which was
founded in 1912. Since 1916/17 the Schattenburg has housed the Feldkirch
local history museum, which today is the largest local history museum in
the state of Vorarlberg.
In 1938, the National Socialists came up
with plans to convert the Schattenburg into a Nazi fortified castle, but
these were not implemented. In the last days of the Second World War,
the castle served as the seat of the Wehrmacht's combat commander.
On November 17, 1953, the French occupying troops returned the
castle to the city, and on June 7, 1965, the complex narrowly escaped a
catastrophic fire.
In addition to the museum, the castle now also
houses a restaurant with a view of Feldkirch's old town.
The first construction phase began around 1200 under Hugo I von
Montfort and included the 16 x 12 m and 21 m high keep as well as the
Palas, the residential building, moats and drawbridge, as well as the
castle walls.
Also worth mentioning are 16th-century frescoes
inside the castle chapel.
Wine has been cultivated under the
Schattenburg again for a few years.
Miscellaneous
On February
3, 1967, the Austrian Post Office issued a definitive stamp of the
Austrian Architectural Monuments stamp series with a value of 1.30
Schilling.
The Feldkirch landmark also adorns the logo of the ice
hockey club VEU Feldkirch.
The ridge is crossed by the two
Schattenburg tunnels. The disused Schattenburg Tunnel now serves as a
shooting range.