# Gutenberg Castle Passes to Habsburg (1314)

URL: https://allhistories.com/liechtenstein/timeline/1314-gutenberg-castle-passes-to-habsburg
Location: Gutenberg, Balzers
Themes: Key Events

The castle hill of Gutenberg at Balzers had been inhabited for at least 6,500 years and carried an early medieval chapel and cemetery. A castle with a ring wall rose there around the twelfth century, and in the later thirteenth century it was probably held by the Lords of Frauenberg, who moved their seat from the Vorderrhein valley to Gutenberg around 1300. After the death of Heinrich of Frauenberg (after 1305) the Dukes of Austria and the Counts of Werdenberg-Heiligenberg both claimed the castle. According to chronicles Ulrich of Ramschwag besieged and took it for Habsburg in 1309, while the Werdenbergs claimed rights through purchases of Frauenberg property. In 1314 the parties agreed that Gutenberg should go to the House of Habsburg, which thereby also became patron of the parish of Balzers. Between 1315 and 1460 the dukes repeatedly pledged it, for example to the Landenbergs (1351–1460), and from 1470 the Ramschwag family served as bailiffs. Gutenberg thus became an Austrian outpost inside the later County of Vaduz, guarding the approach to the St. Luzisteig pass. It played a part in the Old Zurich War, the Swabian War and the Thirty Years' War, and only in 1824 did the municipality of Balzers buy the ruin from Austria.

## Why it matters
For five centuries Habsburg Austria held a fortified enclave on the southern edge of the future principality.

Ruler at the Time: [Lords of Schellenberg](https://allhistories.com/liechtenstein/rulers/lords-of-schellenberg)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Gutenberg Castle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Castle)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Balzers](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Balzers)
- [Historisches Lexikon des Fürstentums Liechtenstein — Gutenberg (Burg, Burghügel)](https://historisches-lexikon.li/Gutenberg_(Burg,_Burgh%C3%BCgel))
- [Wikipedia — Counts And Lordships (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_Vaduz)