Liechtenstein · Still standing
Gutenberg Castle
Burg Gutenberg
Gutenberg Castle is an intact medieval fortress on a 70-metre freestanding rock above the village of Balzers in southern Liechtenstein. It is one of the country's surviving castles and today functions as a museum with parts of the site open to the public.
First raised
1101
Its prime
1537
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1537
What Gutenberg Castle looked like in its prime.
Perched on a solitary 70-metre limestone rock, the castle presents a compact, roughly rectangular main block with steep hipped clay-tile roofs and pale grey stone walls, some surfaces smoothed or plastered. Two prominent square towers flank the complex, one at the south-west with a conical/hipped roof and a taller rectangular keep to the east, with a lower curtain wall and gatehouse at the approach. Narrow medieval windows puncture the walls; an arched gateway and outer bailey sit on the lower slopes, the whole backed by steep forested alpine crags.
Its story
The story of Gutenberg Castle.
A Hilltop Church Fortified, Twelfth Century to 1296
Gutenberg Castle began as a hilltop church and its adjoining cemetery on the free-standing rock above Balzers. In the early twelfth century the cemetery was closed and the former church structure was slowly fortified with the addition of a ring wall, forming a roughly circular keep; further building phases raised the central tower, later fitted with a battlemented parapet. The castle's name is first recorded in writing in 1296.
Habsburg Outpost Against the Swiss Confederates, 1314–1537
The lords of Frauenberg, a noble family from the Swiss canton of Graubünden, held Gutenberg until the death of Heinrich von Frauenberg in 1314, when it passed to the House of Habsburg, which used it as a guard post facing the Swiss confederates encamped at St Luzisteig. Gunshot holes in its walls attest to repeated fighting and sieges there. Whether the castle burned along with much of the village of Balzers during the Zurich War is disputed; the only clearly documented attack is an unsuccessful siege and bombardment in 1499, during the Swabian War. Emperor Maximilian I afterwards had substantial building work carried out at Gutenberg, probably to make good that damage and to strengthen the place further.
The castle kept a drawbridge until at least 1537, when storm damage destroyed it; it was never replaced.
From Military Post to Quarry, 1600s–1854
Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the castle lost its military purpose and was damaged by several fires, though it was still in use as a residence around 1750. After a fire devastated Balzers in 1795, the castle's ruins were stripped for building material to reconstruct the village. The municipality bought the ruin and its grounds in 1824 and made minor repairs before selling it in 1854 to Princess Franziska of Liechtenstein.
Rheinberger's Rebuilding, the Novara Years and the Museum, 1905 Onwards
The architect Egon Rheinberger, born in Vaduz, bought Gutenberg in 1905 and rebuilt it between 1905 and 1912, following the surviving remains as closely as possible while adding a chapel, a chaplain's house and a smithy; because nothing of the original interior had survived, he furnished the rooms largely with pieces bought on the art market. After Rheinberger's death in 1936 the municipality rented the castle out for events until 1951, when it was sold to the Liechtenstein-born Mexican actress Medea de Novara and her husband, Miguel Contreras Torres.
The Liechtenstein government purchased the castle in 1979, though Novara retained the right to live there for life, which she exercised until her death in 2001. Unlike Vaduz Castle, Gutenberg does not serve as a residence of the princely family; it is now open to the public as a museum.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1537.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Gutenberg Castle, including 2 interiors: upper chambers of the main tower (keep), castle chapel. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Recreate Gutenberg Castle with AI to explore it.
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Clans who held Gutenberg Castle.
The families that held Gutenberg Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Frauenberg
Owned by the lords of Frauenberg, a noble family from Graubünden, until the death of Heinrich von Frauenburg in 1314.
Habsburg
Property of the House of Habsburg from 1314, guarding the borderlands against the independent Swiss cantons.
