Uri Keep

Uri Keep is the castle being built near Altdorf, staged as a visible sign of gubernatorial power: its completion is said to secure the governor, and its destruction becomes an explicit objective. The play presents it first as a work in progress and later as a structure to be dismantled, linking the control it promises with the possibility of its removal.

Setting and Construction

The castle stands on an eminence in the background of a common near Altdorf. It is already advanced enough for the outline of the whole building to be distinguished, although only its back part is finished. Its elevated position and incomplete state make the construction an unmistakable feature of the scene rather than a remote or merely reported project.

Strategic Role

Uri Keep matters because its completion would make the governor secure. The warning that delay will allow the keep at Altdorf to be finished gives the building a practical political role: it is not only a castle taking shape, but a source of protection for the governor. The urgency surrounding its completion makes time and construction part of the conflict over who can command the place.

Destruction and Significance

Later, Ruodi calls for the scaffold and arches to be torn down and the walls demolished, insisting that no stone should remain. The target has thus shifted from an unfinished structure whose completion would consolidate the governor’s security to a building marked for comprehensive dismantling. Its staged trajectory—from an outlined castle on the eminence to a structure facing demolition—makes Uri Keep a concrete measure of changing power at Altdorf.