Rhäzüns Castle

Rhäzüns Castle may be one of the oldest castles in Switzerland. In 960 Emperor Otto I traded a church in in castello Beneduces et Ruzunnes to the Bishop of Chur and a 976 document by Otto II confirms the trade the existence of the castle. Over the following centuries the fortified church became a feudal castle and in 1139 Arnoldus de Ruzunne appears in the records as a Romansh noble, though the castle is first mentioned in 1282. During the 12th and 13th centuries the Rhäzüns family grew to become one of the most powerful noble families in the region, with Rhäzüns Castle remaining the center of their power. In 1343 they were powerful enough that a peace treaty between Disentis Abbey and Glarus was signed in the courtyard of Rhäzüns.
By the 1380s they had acquired land in Domleschg and around Heinzenberg Castle, which brought the counts into conflict with the Bishop of Chur. To protect themselves from the growing power of the bishop, on 14 February 1395, the three main nobles of the region of the Vorderrhein together with delegates from the Court Municipalities in Ilanz created an "eternal alliance" known as the Ober Bund or Upper Alliance. The decades long conflict between the Bund and the bishop weakened the power of the Rhäzüns family and forced them to join the expanded Grey League in 1424. In 1458 the last member of the family, Georges Brun von Rhäzüns, died childless, starting a conflict between the Counts of Werdenberg-Sargans and the von Zollern. Five years later, in 1473, the inheritance was finally settled and the castle as well as the extensive Rhäzüns lands passed to Niclas von Zollern.

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