Alt Aspermont Castle, castle ruins in Switzerland

Alt Aspermont Castle is a ruined hilltop castle on a rocky spur at 768 m above sea level, high above the Molinära estate south of Trimmis in the Chur Rhine Valley, Grisons. Only the foundations of a rectangular tower remain on the highest point of the rock; a masonry joint shows the northwest wall section is older than the southwest one. The tower collapsed on 11 April 1878, and the southern part has slid away.

The Aspermont family, ministerialis of the Bishop of Chur, probably built the castle in the 12th century; Ulrich and Schwicker are mentioned in 1149. By 1275 the bishop owned it and granted it as a fief to Walter IV von Vaz. In 1452 the League of God's House besieged it for about a year. After the Ilanz Articles of 1526 removed the bishop's bailiff, it was abandoned and decayed; its main tower collapsed on 11 April 1878.

The name comes from the Aspermont family, ministerialis knights in the service of the Bishop of Chur, first documented in 1149. By the mid-13th century they had acquired rights to Jenins, Maienfeld and the Prättigau through marriage and by exploiting the rivalry between bishop and local nobles, then moved to Neu-Aspermont and Fracstein and sold Alt-Aspermont to the bishop.

The ruins sit at 768 m on a rocky spur above the Molinära estate, south of Trimmis. A marked but steep hiking trail reaches them in about 20 minutes. The terrain is uneven and the southern section has slipped away, so watch your footing near the edges.

The tower collapsed on 11 April 1878; a photograph from 1875 shows it still standing with three walls rising five storeys. A cistern on the lower south-west terrace, still observed by Erwin Poeschel in 1930, can no longer be made out. A joint in the masonry shows the north-west wall remnant is older than the south-west one.