Breny House and Breny Tower

The Breny House with the new wing of the City Museum , on the right the Breny Tower

Breny tower and intermediate wing (before the renovation)

Interior view of the Breny House (after the renovation)

The Breny House and Breny Tower building complex in the old town of Rapperswil , a district of the municipality of Rapperswil-Jona in the canton of St. Gallen, houses the Rapperswil-Jona City Museum . Under the patronage of the Rapperswil-Jona Tourist Association, parts of the Paulina and Heinrika Breny property were established as a local museum of local history and art in 1943 . The property (Obere Halsgasse until 1960) came into the possession of the local community of Rapperswil-Jona in 1958 as a legacy of the Breny siblings . Since then, the names Breny-Haus and Breny-Turm have been common for the property.

Breny Tower

The oldest part of the building complex is the so-called Breny Tower, which can be dated with the connecting city wall on Herrenberg in the late 13th century, when the Lords of Russikon (Russinger) built a residential tower and used it as servants ( ministerials ) for the Counts of Rapperswil inhabited until the 15th century. The former castle complex with the 28-meter-high residential tower on the so-called Herrenberg (castle hill) marked the northeast corner of the former city fortifications until the city was expanded in the 16th century. The Breny Tower was integrated into the south (seaward) city wall with the Herrenberg Gate (demolished in 1848).

Breny house

In its current form, the Breny House was built around 1492 by the knight Hans von Landenberg , who came from the Tösstal , in place of the former residence of the Russingers, and was connected to the tower by a ten-meter-wide intermediate section of the city wall. The Landenbergers held office in Rapperswil until 1530 as mayors and councilors. Subsequent residents were from 1530 to. 1660 the Kaspar Göldlin family, then among others the Good family from Mels and from 175 pastor Michael Augustin Breny from Lütisburg, the founder of the Breny family foundation.

The largely preserved furnishings come from the time (16th century) of the owner, Hauptmann Thuring Göldli. The Gothic hall with flower garlands and beamed ceiling is obtained as the other rooms largely in its original state of construction. The living hall with its late Gothic , partly painted over wall painting is provided with the coat of arms Landenberg and Hünenberg (1492). The Breny-Stube and the Landenberg-Zimmer (year 1503 and coat of arms of the Hohenlandenberg) are in their original condition.

Rapperswil-Jona City Museum

The use and location of the city museum, which is still integrated in the building complex, were reviewed in 2009, and the property was renovated from January 2010 to October 2012: the intermediate wing in need of renovation was demolished in favor of an architecturally uncontroversial new building and this was fitted into the historic street scene between the city parish church and Engelplatz .