Sonnenberg Castle

The Sonnenberg castle ruin is a medieval castle ruin in the Bludenz district in Austria and is located on a steep rocky outcrop above the municipality of Nüziders. It was the seat of the lordship and county of Sonnenberg.

This former castle above Nüziders, built before the Montfort division of property in 1258, passed to the Counts of Werdenberg-Sargans.

During a feud between the Bishop of Chur, Count Hartmann of Werdenberg-Sargans, and Duke Frederick IV of Austria, the castle and the town of Nüziders were burned down.
The castle complex was rebuilt by the Bishop in 1409/10, and the name was then changed from "Burg Nütziders" to "Sonnenberg".

In 1455, the Sargans castle and lordship were ceded for 15,000 gulden to Eberhard I from the House of Waldburg, who already held the lordship of Bludenz with the Montafon valley as a pledge. When Eberhard's son, Andreas von Sonnenberg, severely injured a citizen of Bludenz and subject of Duke Sigmund of Tyrol in 1472, a conflict arose, which the Duke used to conquer and destroy Sonnenberg Castle in 1473 with Feldkirch mercenaries under Burkhard von Knöringen after a three-day siege. Andreas managed to escape in time. The dispute was settled in 1474, and the county was sold to the Duke for 35,000 gulden. He united it with Bludenz, which had become Austrian in 1418, and had it co-administered by the Bludenz bailiffs.

The Habsburgs now had a continuous dominion from the Arlberg to the Rhine.