Last Castle Ruin: A Medieval Tower Castle in Switzerland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- 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 page6 sections
History
Last Castle Ruin is a medieval tower castle ruin in Switzerland, located in the municipality of Kradolf-Schönenberg in the canton of Thurgau. The complex was built in the first half of the twelfth century by the Lords of Schönenberg, who held Schönenberg as a fief from the Bishopric of Constance, a medieval ecclesiastical principality whose bishop also exercised territorial and feudal authority.
The Lords of Schönenberg
The Lords of Schönenberg served the bishop as ministeriales, members of the medieval military and administrative service nobility who held offices, lands, or castles from a higher lord. Bertoldus and Rodolfo of Schönenberg were first mentioned in 1159. Their descendant Friedrich II of Schönenberg was recorded as a crusader in 1211.
The castle was formerly known as Vesti or Schönenberg Castle. In the late Middle Ages, it acquired the name Last from a neighboring farm. Financial difficulties led Johannes III of Schönenberg to return the castle and its associated lands to the bishop in 1352. In 1360, he formally renounced his remaining rights to the property, which then passed to the Lords of Heidelberg.
Destruction and decline
Rebels in the Appenzell Wars destroyed Schönenberg in 1407. These late-medieval conflicts involved Appenzell and its allies against the abbey and territorial lords of St. Gall and their supporters. The castle was rebuilt soon afterward, but no inhabitants were recorded from 1460 onward, and the complex gradually fell into decay.
Ownership and conservation
The ruin passed to the then-young canton of Thurgau in 1804. The canton sold it to a private owner in 1869. The municipality of Neukirch acquired the property in 1960 and donated it to the Ruins Kradolf-Schönenberg cooperative in 1974. Repairs to the residential tower continued from 1974, with the most recent work taking place in 2004. The surrounding area was renovated in 2013, including the access arrangements and protection of the ruin.
Last Castle Ruin is listed as a Class B Swiss cultural property of regional significance and forms part of the cultural-property inventory of Kradolf-Schönenberg.
Remains
The surviving site is a compact hilltop ruin centered on an almost square residential tower. It stands at approximately 547 metres above sea level in Kradolf-Schönenberg. The tower measures about 10 by 11 metres, and its surviving walls rise approximately 12 metres across three storeys.
Residential tower
The tower retains the form of the castle’s principal residential structure. Its elevated entrance remains visible in the north wall, preserving evidence of how access was arranged in the medieval building. A stairway now leads to the ruin, while fencing surrounds the remains and the entrance area has been treated as part of the site’s protection and upkeep.
