Grimmenstein Castle Ruin

En un regard

Le château en bref

The ruin of Grimmenstein stands in the forest, on a long rocky spur between two ravines, above St. Margrethen (St. Gallen), with a view over the Rhine Valley and Lake Constance. Konrad von Falkenstein, a ministerial of the Abbey of St. Gallen, had it built in the 1240s–1250s, above the chapel of St Margaret; he and his descendants then took the name of Grimmenstein, attested from 1254. The castle comprised a powerful residential keep and a courtyard, and a moat, which served as a quarry during construction, protected it. In 1315, the abbot of St. Gallen granted it as a fief to the barons of Enne. During the Appenzell Wars, troops from the town of St. Gallen attacked it in 1405, and it was demolished in 1416, leaving only a single corner wall standing. The ruin today belongs to the Ortsgemeinde of St. Margrethen, which had it made safe in 2023–2024 with the support of the municipality, the canton, the Confederation and sponsors. It is freely accessible, about fifteen minutes' walk from a waymarked path, on the first stage of the Rheintaler Höhenweg.