Top 4 Castles around Blons

Friedrich walked through this gate.

From the village of Nünziders, it's just a stone's throw to the ruins. The walk takes about 10 minutes. It's an interesting place for explorers. There are also seating areas. Here's a short documentary about Sonnenberg Castle: https://youtu.be/mnxkXHwWZ3Q

Archduke Friedrich IV of Tyrol fled to Bludenz through this gate after his condemnation at the Council of Constance in 1416

The Milka production surrounds everything with a light cocoa/chocolate smell 😋

Characteristic of the city for the place worth visiting🤩

Upper gate Built at the end of the 15th century, rebuilt in 1774 and 1920, it is also called Herzog-Friedrich-Tor or Feldkircher Tor. In 1416, Duke Friedrich IV (with an empty pocket) fled from Constance through the Upper Gate into the city; He was taken in in Bludenz and brought safely over the Arlberg by the town's citizens. The Bludenz City Museum is located in the Upper Gate. A few meters away, a covered church staircase built in the 17th century, one of the five castle staircases, leads up to the hill to St. Laurentius Church and Gayenhofen Castle. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bludenz

Schloss Gayenhofen is located in the architectural ensemble with the Laurentiuskirche, dominating the town of Bludenz in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. It is a successor structure to the former Bludenz Castle. The Counts of Werdenberg built a castle complex between 1222 and 1245 as the center of the County of Werdenberg-Heiligenberg, or the Lordship of Bludenz. This made Bludenz a fortified town in Vorarlberg in the Middle Ages, alongside Bregenz and Feldkirch. From 1377/78 to 1418, Count Albrecht III. von Werdenberg-Heiligenberg resided within its walls. After the Werdenberg feud, the town and castle of Bludenz fell to the Habsburgs. In 1448, Duke Sigmund exchanged both for the Lordship of Rotund with Ulrich von Schlandersberg. In 1491, the castle was destroyed by fire. Baron Franz Andreas von Sternbach (1675–1755), who had previously built Schloss Wolfsthurn, had Schloss Gayenhofen built in 1746/1747 by his administrator Johann Josef Gassmayr, with the local bailiff Franz Josef Gilm as local construction manager, using demolition stones from the old castle, with master builder and stonemason Andreas Schmied, who had previously extended the nave of the adjacent Laurentiuskirche. The experience of the mentioned individuals did not require an external architect for the simple design of the castle. On May 5, 1746, the foundation stone of the new castle was laid with the Provicar and parish priest of Bürs, Christian Battlogg, as well as with three Capuchins. The mention of Johann Caspar Bagnato in various sources as an architect is unsubstantiated for Schloss Gayenhofen; however, Bagnato was present at a guild meeting in Schnifis on December 17, 1745, where he accepted Andreas Moll as an apprentice and likely also recruited workers for his construction site at Kornhaus Rohrschach from the Abbey of St. Gallen. In 1936, the town of Bludenz bought the castle and handed it over to the state of Vorarlberg in 1959. Between 1960 and 1963, the castle was remodeled again. The north wing was demolished, thereby opening the previously closed, square inner courtyard, and the castle was adapted on October 26, 1963, as the administrative building of the Bludenz district authority. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Gayenhofen

This city gate to Bludenz's old town is worth seeing and driving through