Grottenstein Castle Ruin

En un regard

Le château en bref

Grottenstein, also called Krottenstein or Chrottenstein, is a cave castle built beneath a broad rock shelter, at the foot of a cliff of the Calanda, above Haldenstein, in the municipality of Chur (Graubünden). The builders closed off the cavity with a façade wall, the only remnant still standing: about 1.7 m thick and roughly 22 m long, it retains a high doorway some 5 m above the ground, a beam channel and a narrow arrow slit. The back of the cave remains in raw rock, and a spring rises inside it. The age of the structure is uncertain, and no excavation has succeeded in establishing its chronology. It may have belonged to the lords of Lichtenstein, but nothing proves this, and the presence of the spring points rather to a simple refuge in times of war. The chroniclers Fortunat Sprecher (1617) and Nicolin Sererhard (1742) both mention it. According to the tourist office, the name derives from "Chrott", meaning toad, and not from "grotte" (cave), which has fuelled legends of treasures guarded by cave fairies. The ruin, which is freely accessible at no cost, can be reached on foot in just over half an hour from the village of Haldenstein.