Sünikon Castle (Ruin)

The Sünikon ruin is a castle ruin southwest of Sünikon in the Dielsdorf district, Canton Zurich, Switzerland. The simple tower castle, with a footprint of 12.5 by 11.9 meters, was located directly on the frequently traveled pilgrimage route from the Upper Rhine to Einsiedeln Abbey, 100 meters above the bottom of the Wehntal valley on the northern slope of the Lägern.

Documents mention a knightly family of Sünikon as followers of the Regensbergers in the 13th and 14th centuries; their traces disappear after 1397.

During excavations in 1961, when a forest road was being built in the so-called Pflasterwiese (Pavement Meadow), the remains of the almost square building's walls were discovered. By the summer of 1962, the walls, up to 1.3 meters thick, had been uncovered. In the debris of the filled-in cellar, parts of ceramic tableware and tiled stoves, remains of pointed-arch windows made of sandstone, and a few metal finds such as tools and nails from the 15th to 17th centuries were found.

However, no objects from the Sünikon knightly era were found, leading to the assumption that it was more likely the pilgrim's hostel that operated there until the 17th century. In the vicinity, the pilgrimage chapel Maria Pflasterbach from the 16th century, mentioned in many writings, is also presumed to be located.

On Jos Murer's cantonal map from 1566, a castle named Sünikon is marked as a ruin next to the Pflasterbach chapel. This suggests that the pilgrim's hostel at Pflasterbach likely stood on the foundations of the castle of the Sünikon family.