Burg Dübelstein: A Medieval Castle Ruin in Switzerland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.1
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Switzerland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Burg Dübelstein is a medieval hillside castle ruin near Dübendorf in Switzerland. It was associated with the Lords of Dübendorf, whose name appears in 1130, and became a seat of free nobility. The castle later acquired the commemorative name Waldmannsburg through its connection with Hans Waldmann, a fifteenth-century mayor of Zurich who was executed in 1489.
The Lords of Dübendorf
In the thirteenth century, the Lords of Dübendorf were entrusted with oversight of Dübendorf. A few years after the castle was built, Konrad of Dübelstein used the castle name for the first time in 1257, in the form Tuobelnstein. The Lords of Dübelstein died out around 1314, and the castle then passed to the Lords of Hofstetten, who held it until 1402. After that date, Dübelstein changed hands several times.
War, Waldmann, and destruction
During the Old Zurich War, a fifteenth-century conflict between Zurich and the Swiss Confederation, including forces from Schwyz, the castle’s lord surrendered Dübelstein to advancing Schwyzer troops in 1444. He did so to spare his garrison. The troops nevertheless devastated the complex, which was rebuilt soon afterward.
In 1487, Zurich mayor Hans Waldmann bought the castle and its lordship rights from the Werdenbergers. After Waldmann’s execution in 1489, the castle was looted and destroyed again in April of that year. The City of Zurich confiscated the castle, its lordship, and Waldmann’s other property. Between 1489 and 1496, the later Zurich mayor Rudolf Escher made the castle habitable again.
Fire, abandonment, and commemoration
On 27 May 1611, a fire almost completely destroyed Dübelstein after a maid dried flax beside a fire. The tower was not badly damaged, so it continued to be inhabited. During the seventeenth century, however, the castle was abandoned and its materials were used as a quarry.
In 1889, the Waldmann Exhibition Committee acquired the complex for the 400th anniversary of Hans Waldmann’s death and established a memorial site for him. On 4 October 1891, the committee donated the castle hill to the citizens’ municipality of Zurich for the city’s municipal assets. Excavation and conservation took place in 1942 and 1943. In 1998, the protected ruin hill was sold to the Pro Waldmannsburg association for one Swiss franc. Dübelstein is listed as a Class B Swiss cultural property of regional significance.
Remains
Dübelstein survives as the remains of a hillside castle on the northern slope of the Adlisberg, at an elevation of 506 metres above sea level. A neck ditch, a defensive ditch cut across the narrower approach to a castle site, provides access to the complex. The preserved ruins represent a castle that was maintained as a ruin rather than surviving as an intact building.
Fortifications and tower
The castle had a massive keep, the principal fortified tower of a medieval castle, with walls up to three metres thick. Its tower foundation remains among the ruins. The keep formed the central fortified element of a complex that served as a residence for free nobles. The surviving fabric was excavated and conserved in 1942 and 1943.
Images of the castle
Gerold Edlibach, a Zurich chronicler and compiler of a heraldic book, included the oldest known depiction of the castle in his 1489 armorial book, where it appears under the name Waldmannsburg. A reconstruction by L. Schulthess, made in 1836, presents the castle’s condition in the seventeenth century and provides a later visual interpretation of its form.
