The remains of the Castle can be visited
CastleRheineck
Alt-Rheineck Castle (Ruin)
In the Swiss municipality of Rheineck in the canton of St. Gallen, the Alt-Rheineck ruin, a former hilltop castle, stands at approximately 455 meters above sea level. Of the once contested complex, only a tower remnant remains today.
History+
The origins of Alt-Rheineck Castle date back to the mid-12th century, when the Diocese of Constance had the complex built to secure its possessions in the Rhine Valley. The Lords of Rheineck served as vassals of the bishop. Later, the dominion passed to Count Rudolf of Pfullendorf, who bequeathed it to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, making it an imperial bailiwick. After Barbarossa's death, a dispute over the fief erupted between the Bishop of Constance and the Abbey of St. Gallen. Despite a defeat of Abbot Ulrich VI of Sax, the imperial bailiwick ultimately fell to Emperor Otto IV. In the 14th century, Emperor Henry VII pledged the bailiwick to Count Hugo III of Werdenberg-Heiligenberg. The Rheineck lineage died out before 1372. In 1375, Habsburg-Austria acquired the possessions and redeemed the imperial pledge of Rheineck. During the Appenzell Wars, the castle was stormed and set on fire by the Appenzellers in 1405. After their defeat in 1408, a partial reconstruction took place. In the Old Zurich War, Alt-Rheineck was again conquered by the Appenzellers in 1445 and definitively destroyed.
On site+
Today, only a part of the keep remains of Alt-Rheineck Castle. The ruin can be visited.
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Source: swisscastles.ch
Text and/or image for this object come from the linked site and are used with the permission of its operators; the linked page remains the copyright of its authors. The legacy catalogue kept text source and image source in a single field, so which part came from there can no longer be told apart entry by entry.
Location: 47.4642, 9.5854