Schwarzenbach Castle

The settlement of Schwarzenbach was first mentioned in official documents on March 16, 779. The local properties of the Monastery of St. Gallen were managed by local ministerials, who likely built a fortification on a hill north of the old mill of Schwarzenbach in the 12th century to protect the crossing of the Thur river on the road between Wil and St. Gallen. This noble family of the Lords of Schwarzenbach became extinct around 1250.
The property around Schwarzenbach eventually came into the possession of Count Rudolf of Habsburg through purchase, who assumed the protection of the Monastery of St. Gallen as king in 1273 but was simultaneously in conflict with the monastery. He apparently intended to establish an attack fortress on the city of Wil, which belonged to the Monastery of St. Gallen. The first castle in Schwarzenbach was apparently too small for this purpose, so Rudolf had a new castle complex built over the Thur after 1282, which essentially consisted of the keep that is still preserved today. North of it, he additionally founded a town called Schwarzenbach, which was also referred to as "Trutz-Wil." In the subsequent conflicts between Rudolf and Albrecht of Habsburg on one side and Abbot Wilhelm of Montfort on the other, both Wil and Schwarzenbach were destroyed and rebuilt. For some time, the entire population of the destroyed Wil fled to Schwarzenbach. In the peace of 1301 between Prince Abbot Wilhelm of Montfort and the sons of Albrecht of Habsburg, it was agreed that the town and castle of Schwarzenbach should be dismantled. However, the castle remained intact since the castle steward Jakob Hofmeister made compensation claims. As a compromise, the castle ultimately went for 200 marks of silver to Baron Heinrich of Griessenberg, who was close to the Monastery of St. Gallen. After several changes of ownership through inheritance, the castle and dominion passed in 1483 from the Barons of Hewen to the Prince Abbey of St. Gallen, which made it the center of the highest jurisdiction of Niederamt in the county of Toggenburg. The coat of arms of the jurisdiction displayed a silvery river flowing diagonally to the right with a black and gold ribbon.

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