Burg Wackenau

En un regard

Le château en bref

The ruins of Wackenau Castle stand on a wooded spur at an altitude of around 630 m, above a bend of the Vorderrhein (Anterior Rhine), some 3 km north-west of Bonaduz in the Grisons. No written record documents the founding of this hilltop castle: neither the builder nor the date of construction is known, and the remains do not allow any conclusion. It appears only in late texts, around 1573 in Ulrich Campell, then as ‘Vackenou’ in Fortunat Sprecher in 1617. Its name is said to derive from ‘Wacke’, a river pebble, which fits its position above the Rhine gravels. It is assumed, without proof, that it protected the road to Trin, which crossed the river here by a bridge. Of the rubble masonry construction, remains survive of a shield wall, an outer ditch, traces of an enclosure wall to the west and of a building to the north-east; no tower is known. The ruin can be reached on foot in some twenty minutes from a car park west of Bonaduz, and a neighbouring viewing platform offers a view over the Ruinaulta, the gorge of the Anterior Rhine.