En un regard
Le château en bref
Alt-Rheineck is the ruin of a medieval castle overlooking the small town of Rheineck, in the canton of St. Gallen, about 500 metres west of the Rhine. The surviving remains are those of a tower dating from the early 13th century, together with a ditch still legible in the terrain, which has earned the site its listing in the cantonal inventory of archaeological sites worthy of protection (record SAF 15_01) and in that of cultural property (KGS object). The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland possibly links Alt-Rheineck with the castellum Rinegge, which the Bishop of Constance sold around 1163 to Count Rudolf of Pfullendorf. The lords of Rheineck, mentioned from 1169 to 1365, were ministerials of the Bishop of Constance and of the Abbot of St. Gallen; according to a secondary source, they subsequently moved their seat to Neu-Rheineck, a castle built in the 13th century, destroyed in 1445, and whose ruin was demolished in 1747, with walls linking the castles to the township. Alt-Rheineck, abandoned, gradually fell into ruin. A path from the town now allows visitors to reach it on a walk, with a view over Lake Constance.