Episcopal Palace

There is hardly another historic town in Switzerland of such diminutive proportions as Fürstenau in Domleschg. It looks out from a rocky promontory onto the meadows of the Princes on the right bank of the Rhine. This is what the bishops of Chur called themselves as the former lords of this town and the surrounding estates. In its more recent history, the building served as a boarding house for children who were employed in the Albula spinning mill. The Capuchin Father Theodosius Florentini from Münster Valley, one of the great social reformers of the 19th century, was the driving force behind the project. After Florentini's death, the building housed the newly founded secondary school from 1871 until it was bought by a private owner in 1876. The buyer was Peter von Planta from the Zuoz line, a shrewd businessman who had retired from the cotton export business he had founded with his cousin in 1877. In 1877 and 1896, he carried out various conversions and renovations to the castle and initially had it converted into a hospital. However, this "second country hospital in Bünden" had to be abandoned in 1896, partly due to a lack of staff.

Access

The Episcopal Castle in Fürstenau is privately owned and not open to the public. The complex is located directly on the Domleschg Castle Trail.