The Upper Castle in Zizers is a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Zizers Zizers () is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Landquart Region in the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden. History Zizers is first mentioned in 824 as ''Zizuris''. Of note, Zita of Bourbon-Parma, l ...

of the

Canton of Graubünden The Grisons (; ) or Graubünden (),Names include: * ; * Romansh: ** ** ** ** ** **; * ; * ; * . See also other names. more formally the Canton of the Grisons or the Canton of Graubünden, is one of the twenty-six cantons of Switzerland. I ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

History

The Upper Castle in Zizers was built for

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

Simon von Salis (1646-1694) who was from the

Tirano Tirano (; ) is a town and (municipality) in Valtellina, located in the province of Sondrio, Lombardy (northern Italy). It has 9,053 inhabitants (2016) and is adjacent to the Italy–Switzerland border. The river Adda (river), Adda flows through ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

branch of the large and wealthy Salis family. Simon was the Captain over the

Valtellina Valtellina or the Valtelline (occasionally spelled as two words in English: Val Telline; (); or ; ; ) is a valley in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, bordering Switzerland. Today it is known for its ski centre, hot spring spas, bresa ...

and had spent years in mercenary service in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. When he built the castle in Zizers, the design was inspired by the architecture of Italian palaces. The castle was renovated in 1725 and again in 1790–1800. During the 18th century the castle was completely covered in facade paintings. Painting illusionary architectural elements was common in northern Italy during the 18th century and shows a continuing relationship with this branch of the Salis family and Italy. The last members of the family, Franziska von Salis-Zizers and Therese von Salis-Zizers died in 1976 and 1977 respectively. After their deaths the castle library, with over 1000 volumes including many 17th through 19th century letters, business records, archives and chronicles were donated to the Cantonal Archives.Cantonal Archive inventory
accessed 13 July 2017

Castle site

The castle is a square, massive building topped with a

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other vertical sides ...

. The 18th century facade paintings cover the entire building and include

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

columns, illusionary windows, elaborate window frames and stone walls. Currently the castle is privately owned.

References

Cultural property of national significance in Graubünden Castles in Graubünden {{Switzerland-castle-stub