Sandegg Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Sandegg Castle, or the Sandegg castle ruin, stood in the municipality of Salenstein in the district of Kreuzlingen, canton of Thurgau, Switzerland. According to sources from the 15th century, the Frankish landvogt Sintlaz is said to have resided at Sandegg Castle as early as the 8th century. He was a ‘most noble landvogt of the crown of France’, an envoy of the Frankish king Charles Martel. The founding of Reichenau Abbey is also said to have been carried out from Sandegg. Sandegg Castle is documented from the mid-13th century onwards as a possession of Reichenau Abbey. After 1272, the castle was the preferred residence of Abbot Albrecht, whose abbey still lay in ruins following the fire of 1235. Around 1260, the castle is said to have been sold by its then owner, Eberhard von Steckborn, to the Teutonic Order; however, this disputed transaction was reversed a few years later. From 1350 onwards, the impoverished abbey was forced to pledge Sandegg Castle, and numerous changes of ownership followed. In 1402, a castle chapel is first mentioned, which was served by the parish priest of Ermatingen. In 1497, Sandegg was pledged to a wealthy citizen of Constance, as the abbey was evidently still short of money. In 1575, Sandegg, ‘completely ruined and overgrown’, was granted as a fief to a Hans Ulrich Herter. The abbey waived the tithe for a decade on condition that Herter restored the castle to a usable state.