Campell Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

The ruins of Campell Castle, also known as Campi, overlook the Albula from a rocky spur at the entrance to the Schin Gorge, in the municipality of Sils im Domleschg (Graubünden), at an altitude of around 772 m. The name is said to derive from camp bel, "beautiful field". The site, first mentioned in 1289 with Egeno de Campell, developed in several phases: originally a fortified four-storey residential tower, then an extension onto a plateau with a curtain wall, a ditch, a drawbridge and a bailey, the raising of the tower and a cistern, and finally a three-storey palace. The lords of Campell, ministerials of the Bishop of Chur, probably died out in the 14th century; the castle then passed to the Ehrenfels, the Ring and, in 1567, the Salis family. A fire at the beginning of the 17th century was followed by a reconstruction, and by around 1700 the castle was no longer inhabited. Acquired in the 20th century by the Engadine family Campell, the ruin was bequeathed in 1987 to the Ruine Campell/Campi Foundation, which had it consolidated between 1993 and 1998 and opened it to the public in 2001. A cultural property of national importance, it is freely accessible and about thirty minutes' walk from the Burgenweg Domleschg.