Ringgenberg castle ruins, Zignau

Ruins of a tower with a ring and outbuildings on a spur-shaped moraine hill above the hamlet of Ringgenberg, Romanesque Zignau. The core of the complex is the tower, which consists of four storeys, each offset in the wall. The walls thus taper from 2.4 m to 1.3 m. The masonry is made of quarry stones and boulders, stacked in layers. Embrasure windows and door surrounds with lots of tufa. There is a high entrance in the east wall on the 3rd floor. The lintel consists of a lunette-shaped workpiece and rests on protruding console stones. The gallery door in the south wall of the 4th floor has the same design, although it is narrower. The gallery, the course of which can be traced through the beam holes, extended across the entire south front. There are traces of an outer enclosing wall in front of it on the west and north sides. 

The entrance from the south-west can still be partially recognized and certain features date the tower to the middle or second half of the 13th century. There must have been at least one subsequent extension. The castle is mentioned in documents in the federal letters of Zurich, Zug and Glarus with the Confederates (1351/52) as a border point of the mutual aid circle. The lords of Ringgenberg are undoubtedly a branch of the Riggenberg family on Lake Brienz BE, as can be seen from the coat of arms. They probably came to Graubünden in the course of the Walser migrations - probably via Valais - and built their castle as Disentis ministerials. The fortress was abandoned in the 15th century.

(Recorded by Regiun Surselva)