Urstein Castle Ruin

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Urstein castle ruin is an almost vanished spur castle in the former domain of the Abbey of St Gall, in the municipality of Herisau (formerly Hinterland District) in the canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes. Over the centuries, most of the remains of the structure had slid down into the two ravines (Tobel) flanking the narrow molasse rock spur. By the time the ruin was added to the municipal inventory of protected heritage sites in 1955, very little was left. From October 1971, emergency excavations found only remnants of the sandstone walls of three buildings, including two wall corners of walls about 220–230 cm thick. Erosion of the unstable molasse spur had already reached such a threatening extent at that time, and the spur was weathering away ever more rapidly, that the ruin was expected to disappear soon. The weathering of the spur into an ever narrower and shorter ridge has continued since then, as has the weathering of the masonry itself. In 2024, only isolated fragments of wall can still be found, and their loss must be expected soon.