Alt Rapperswil Castle

Altendorf; Alt-Rapperswil
Location within Switzerland
General information
Classification	ruined historic monument
Town or city	Altendorf
Country	Switzerland
Coordinates	47°11′06″N 8°50′28″E / 47.184953°N 8.841181°E / 47.184953; 8.841181
Construction started	before 1200 AD
Completed	unknown; destroyed in 1350 AD

Altendorf Castle (Swiss German: Ruine Altendorf) was a castle in the municipality of Altendorf in the canton of Schwyz.

The ruins respectively a chapel built at the castle's former location is situated on the western lakeshore of Obersee (Zürichsee) on a hill towards the Etzel (mountain) in Altendorf in the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland

Altendorf appears as "Rahprehteswilare" for the first time in a document of emperor Otto II, in which goods of the Einsiedeln Abbey were confirmed on 14 August 972. Rahprehteswilare means hamlet or village of Raprecht, named after a probably Alemanni nobleman in the 7th or 8th century AD. After the establishment of the present Rapperswil around 1200 AD, the village with the church of St. Michael was renamed "vetus villa Rapperswile" (literally: old town Rapperswil) and the castle was called "die vestize der alten Rapreswile" (literally: the fortress of the old House of Rapperswil). To the middle of the 15th century AD, for the first time the name "zu dem alten Dorfe" (literally: to the old village) was mentioned from which the name "Altendorf" (literally: old village) arose.

Alt-Rapperswil (literally: old Rapperswil, named after the House of Rapperswil) was built, before the later Counts of Rapperswil moved from Altendorf across the lake to the other side of the so-called Seedamm area. The counts of Rapperswil had possessions in what is now Eastern and Central Switzerland, and they acted as Vögte of the Einsiedeln Abbey since the 11th century AD, as therefore the castle may have been built as seat of the Vogt, in addition to the nearby later fortification in Pfäffikon, that was owned by the Einsiedeln abbey.