page_title: Marschlins Castle
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Marschlins Castle / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Schloss Marschlins Zustand des Schlosses um 1775
context_page_description: Marschlins Castle is a castle in the village of Igis of the municipality of Landquart of the Canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
  Marschlins Castle was the childhood home of feminist Meta von Salis.
context_section_description: The castle was built in the 13th century, though there may have been 11th or 12th century castles on the site and local legend claims it dates back to the Carolingian era.  However, the 13th century castle was probably built for the Bishop of Chur.  The castle is built in the Savoyard style, a square castle with corner towers, one of which is enlarged to serve as the donjon.  This style of castle is unique in Graubünden and how the design was imported is unknown.  One theory for a Savoy connection is that between 1233 and 1237 the Bishop of Chur was Ulrich IV of Kyburg whose brother Hartmann IV was married to Margarethe of Savoy.
  The castle was first mentioned on 12 May 1324 as the death place of the knight Jacob von Marmels.  In 1336 the Bishop and Count Ulrich von Montfort were quarreling over the castle, which was decided by the courts in the Bishop's favor.  However, in the following year he granted the castle as a fief to Duke Albert II of Austria.  The Austrian duke granted it to several of his knights, until on 3 October 1354 it was granted to the Counts of Toggenburg in exchange for their support against Zürich and the Old Swiss Confederation.  After the death of the last Count of Toggenburg, Frederick VII, in 1436 the fief passed back to the Austrians who granted it to the Brandis family to hold for the Bishop of Chur.  In 1442 they used the castle as collateral for a loan from Heinrich von Sigberg.  In 1460 the castle was partly destroyed in a fire.  Because of the complex ownership (owned by the Bishop of Chur, granted as a fief to the Brandis family, collateral to the Sigberg family), a quarrel broke out between the Brandis and Sigberg families over the cost of repairs.  A mediator from the Three Leagues determined that the Brandis family needed to repay the loan and that the repair costs would be shared equally.
  In 1462 the Duke of Austria acquired the castle and estates from the Bishop of Chur and sold it to Ulrich von Brandis, who began rebuilding.  In 1467 the duke expanded the estates attached to Marschlins by adding Malans, Untervaz and Valzeina.  In 1498 the Brandis family began trying to sell the castle and estates, but the outbreak of the Swabian War in the following year broke the deal.  After the war, in 1509, they pawned the castle to Ulrich Goeldin and in 1518 the Gugelberg family bought it outright.  Around 1600 the moat was drained.  In 1633 it was acquired by a branch of the Salis family, who adopted the name Salis-Marschlins.  Two years later Ulysses Salis began renovating the castle and turned it from a more military fortification into an elegant house with a french garden.  In 1771 the bell tower on the chapel was added.  From 1771 until 1777 the castle became a philanthropinist school.  Later, it was a tobacco factory and a silk spinning mill.  After the French invasion of Switzerland the castle became an army camp.  A total of about 10,000 soldiers and 3,000 horse passed through the castle between March 1799 and December 1800.
  In 1905 the Salis family had the castle rebuilt under the guidance of the architect Eugen Probst.  Probst, the controversial founder of the Schweizerischer Burgenverein, made little effort to preserve the historic structures or preserve the medieval appearance of Marschlins.  An additional floor was added to the tower and many new windows were added.  Today the castle is still privately owned.
caption: The castle in 1775
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