home » Leisure & Excursions » Castles & Palaces

Wartegg Castle

Rorschacherberg

Former residence of the nobility.

The Wartegg Castle was built in 1558 by the Blarer von Wartensee family, a dynasty from whom also the ruling families of St.Gallen were descended. In 1822, it passed into the possession of the von Thurn family. It was resided in by friends of Napoleon and by nobility and diplomats who had served the French king from the Bourbon family and who had fled to Wartegg Castle during the time of the French republic. In this way the monarch of Parma also came for the first time to Wartensee and then became its owner in 1860. She was descended from the French king Louis XIV and her grand-daughter married the Archduke Charles of Austria. The empress Zita came temporarily to Wartegg in exile in 1919 and in 1924 the Bourbon family sold the castle.

Afterwards there were many changes of ownership until the castle was bought in 1994 by Christoph and Angelika Mijnssen and redesigned into a holiday and seminar hotel with a restaurant open to the public.

Zoom map

Contact Information

Schloss Wartegg
9404 Rorschacherberg
Tel. +41 (0) 71 858 62 62
Fax +41 (0) 71 858 62 60
schloss@wartegg.ch
wartegg.ch

InfoBox

How to get there

By car:

Motorway A1 (St.Gallen/St.Margrethen)
Exit Rheineck (first exit after Rorschach / Kreuzlingen)
Follow the signs for Rorschach/Staad
Cross the town of Staad to the western end of town (on your left hand side: Shell- and Migrol-Gas station)
Follow the signs for Rorschacherberg, then follow the brown signs and pass Parkhotel Waldau
The entrance to the castle is on Kantonsstrasse from Rorschacherberg to Thal, about 300m above the lake. Shortly before Buchen, immediately before the eastern end Rorschacherberg, at the "Wylen-Garage".
Approximitly 1h 15 min from Zurich, 5 min from Hundertwasser Market hall.

By train:

Every half hour from Zurich (1h 40min) or every hour from Chur
Zurich departure: 10 and 40 past the hour, change trains in St.Gallen
Train station Staad, walk back into the direction of Rorschach, follow the train tracks until the railroad crossing, then continue above the train line into the park. It is about a 10 Min. walk.
Or you take a taxi from the main train station Rorschach
Regional bus connections from train station Rheineck and near the train station at the harbour in Rorschach: Rheineck-Thal-Post Rorschach (stop is Wilen or Schönenbach) Altenrhein-Post Rorschach (stop is Hörnlibuck)