Alt-Wülflingen castle ruins

Alt-Wülflingen castle ruins
Alt-Wülflingen ruins
Creation time :	before 1055 as a refuge
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	Keep
Construction:	Boss cuboid
Place:	Winterthur
Geographical location	47 ° 29 '59.4 "  N , 8 ° 41' 17.2"  E
Height:	541  m above sea level M.

Lookout tower castle ruins Alt-Wülflingen
Basic data
Place:	Winterthur
Canton:	Zurich
Country:	Switzerland
Altitude :	540  m
Coordinates: 47 ° 29 '59.4 "  N , 8 ° 41' 17.2"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred and ninety-four thousand one hundred and forty-three  /  two hundred sixty-one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine
Use:	Observation tower
Accessibility:	Observation tower open to the public
Owner :	City of Winterthur
Tower data
Construction time :	1150-1250
Building material :	Bricked up
Last modification:	2016-2018
Total height :	18.00  m
Viewing platform:	15.00  m
Position map
Lookout tower castle ruins Alt-Wülflingen

The Alt-Wülflingen castle ruins are the ruins of a hilltop castle in Winterthur in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland . It is classified as a cultural asset of national importance .

location

The castle ruins are hidden in the forest on a hill above the Totentäli . From its 18 m high, well-restored castle keep , which can be climbed inside with two spiral staircases, you have a beautiful view of the Töss and Brüel mountain , the two neighborhoods Wülflingen and Töss separates. It is located at 541  m above sea level. M. , around 3 kilometers west of the old town of Winterthur and 320 meters northeast of the Hoh-Wülflingen castle . The two former castles are separated by the Totentäli.

history

Beginnings

The village of Wülflingen was founded by the Alemanni and was first mentioned in a document in 897 as "Wulfilinga". The place seems to have been the seat of a dynasty of counts since at least the 10th century, who owned Wülflingen, Embrach and Buch am Irchel for their own property and for good. The only family member known by name is Willebirg von Wülflingen , who lived in the first half of the 11th century and was married to Count Liutold (or Luitold) von Mömpelgard . Her son Hunfried (Umfredus) became canon in Strasbourg ; he founded the canons of St. Peter zu Embrach and donated it to the Strasbourg diocese. In 1044 he gave him his paternal inheritance, which included real estate in Alsace and Embrach. Hunfried became Chancellor of Emperor Heinrich III in 1046 . and in 1046 Archbishop of Ravenna . Willebirgs daughter Adelheid marries Count Rudolf von Achalm , which means that the von Achalm family came into the possession of the Wülflingen rulership . Rudolf and his brother Egino built Achalm Castle in Württemberg . Adelheid and Rudolf had three surviving sons, of whom Lütold (Luitold) lived in Achalm Castle and Cuno (Kuno) in Alt-Wülflingen Castle, while Werner became Bishop of Strasbourg (1065-1079).

It is unclear when a fortified seat was built on the Burgberg near Wülflingen. Wülflingen Castle must have existed around the middle of the 11th century. Before that, there seems to have been at least one refuge on the mountain, which was expanded. From 1055 to 1056 Count Kuno von Achalm held on behalf of Emperor Heinrich III. the Regensburg Bishop Gebhard III. trapped here because he should have conspired against the ruler. Kuno resided at the castle and has called himself Kuno von Wülflingen since then .

In 1089 the brothers Count Liutold von Achalm and Count Kuno von Wülflingen founded the Zwiefalten monastery and gave it, among other things, the castle Wülflingen. In this context, they found their sister Willebirg and her son Werner von Grüningen with extensive property in Swabia and Alsace in order to prevent future claims on Zwiefalten. Count Kuno died in 1092, and Zwiefalten Abbey waived Alt-Wülflingen in relation to Luitold. After Luitold died in 1098 without sons, the castle and rule of Wülflingen went to the sons of his sister Mathilde von Horburg, the Counts of Horburg in Upper Alsace. From these it came to the Counts of Habsburg , who inherited the Counts of Kyburg in 1264 .

In 1155 and 1169 a Rudolf von Wülflingen and his son Hermann are mentioned in documents. They do not seem to have had a title of count and their relationship with the older Wülflingern is not certain.

Change of ownership and new construction

At the latest in 1239 there were Castles and Power, along with the high jurisdiction in the hands of the Counts of Habsburg Kyburg that the still preserved mighty dungeon built. With a floor plan of 7.3 × 7.3 meters, the building has up to 2.25 meters thick walls made of sandstone - humpback ashlars . The residential wing, which is now only faintly recognizable, the inner courtyard and other ancillary buildings were grouped around it. At the foot of the mountain, on the Töss, there were barns and stables.

The Habsburgs gave the rule to various nobles as fiefs. One of them was Konrad von Wülflingen, who, as the feudal man of this powerful family of counts, held various important positions, around 1257 as mayor of Sempach. Around 1290 the Lords of Hettlingen held the castle fief. From 1315 it was the lords of lakes . They renewed the complex and performed important military services for their Habsburg liege lords. Due to financial difficulties, Duke Leopold III pledged . the rule in 1376 to Hartmann von Seen and not redeemed it again. After Hartmann von Seen died in the Battle of Sempach in 1386 and his son died in the Battle of Stoss in 1405 , Hartmann's son-in-law, Ulrich VIII von Landenberg-Greifensee , inherited the castle and made it his residence.

Late period

The castle around 1673

Towards the end of the 15th century, rule came through marriage to Konrad von Rümlang , who was often involved in disputes and lived beyond his means. His son and successor, Hans Konrad von Rümlang, also involved in numerous conflicts and deeply in debt, sold the entire tithe of Wülflingen to the city of Winterthur in 1515; he pledged the jurisdiction to the community of Wülflingen. Rümlang could no longer pay his debts in 1524 and was beheaded for fraud in October 1529 by decision of the Zurich council.

In 1528 Hans Steiner from Pfungen acquired the castle and lordship from the municipality of Wülflingen. In 1596, the majority of the castle residents fell victim to the plague , including the lord of the castle, Sebastian Steiner. An attempt by the Steiner family to sell the castle to the city of Winterthur in 1634 failed because of Zurich's objection . In the same year, the Escher and Meiss families from Zurich acquired the facility. Since the old castle was no longer suitable as a residence, the Eschers built Wülflingen Castle in the village of Wülflingen in 1644 , using material from the castle.

The jurisdiction of Wülflingen existed until 1760, when Zurich took over sovereignty, while the castle and estate fell to the city of Winterthur. The tower was used as a prison until at least 1764. Then the disintegration began. The manor was also demolished in 1834. The ancillary buildings fell into disrepair and the material was used for new buildings in the area in the 19th century. An earthquake in November 1911 caused further damage. In 1895 the tower was given a sloping brick cover. In 1936 the top of the wall was secured and a ground-level entrance that had subsequently been broken into the tower wall was closed.

In 1983/84 the tower was renovated again and made accessible again via the old high entrance and an internal staircase. As the walls of the ruin were exposed to moisture and frost, they threatened to collapse again thirty years later. The facility was therefore closed at the end of 2013 and subsequently secured with tensioning straps and provided with a temporary roof. The definitive new protective roof was erected in July 2016 with the help of a helicopter. It is a flat roof made of spruce wood that is covered with gravel and about one meter above the masonry. In March 2017, the ruins were scaffolded and the masonry was then comprehensively renovated. The work was completed in September 2018. The total costs amounted to around two million francs.

Observation tower

76 steps lead to the observation tower, which was reopened on September 19, 2018, at a height of 15 meters. From here you have a view of the Winterthur districts of Brühlberg, Tössfeld, Heiligberg and Deutweg.

• 

  Outside stairs

• 

  Inner staircase

• 

  Viewing platform

literature

• Thomas Bitterli: Swiss Castle Guide. Including the Principality of Liechtenstein. Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Basel 1995, ISBN 3-7245-0865-4 , No. 824.
• Heinrich Boxler: Castles of Switzerland, Vol. 5: Cantons of Zurich and Schaffhausen. Silva-Verlag, Zurich 1982, pp. 22-23.
• Emanuel Dejung, Richard Zürcher, Hans Hofmann: The Art Monuments of the Canton of Zurich, Volume VI: The City of Winterthur and the City of Zurich (Art History Summary) (= The Art Monuments of Switzerland . Volume 27). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History . Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1952, pp. 353–354.
• Fritz Hauswirth: Castles and Palaces of Switzerland, Vol. 4: Zurich, Schaffhausen. Kreuzlingen 1968, pp. 138-140.
• Daniel Reicke: "From strong and large flüejen": An investigation into megalithic and humpback cuboid masonry on castle towers in the area between the Alps and the Rhine. Swiss contributions to the cultural history and archeology of the Middle Ages, Vol. 22. Basel, 1995, p. 125.
• Emil Stauber: The castles of the Winterthur district and their families (=  New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library . Volume 285 ). Buchdruckerei Winterthur AG, Winterthur 1953, p. 353-369 .
• Heinrich Zeller-Werdmüller: Zurich castles. In: Communications from the Antiquarian Society in Zurich. 48./49. Born in Zurich 1894–1895, pp. 386–388.
• Peter Ziegler: Wülflingen. From the beginning to the present (= New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library. Volume 305). Winterthur 1975, pp. 25-28.

Web links

Commons : Alt-Wülflingen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Alt-Wülflingen Castle Burgenwelt.org
• Alt Wülflingen ruins on Burgseite.ch
• Alt-Wülflingen in the Winterthur glossary.

and display information about the image

Panorama from the Alt-Wülflingen castle ruins

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A-Objects ZH 2018 . Swiss inventory of cultural assets of national importance. In: babs.admin.ch / kulturgueterschutz.ch. Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP - Department of Cultural Property Protection, January 1, 2018, accessed on December 26, 2017 (PDF; 163 kB, 32 pages, updated annually, no changes for 2018).
2. ^ Peter Ziegler: Wülflingen (community). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
3. ^ Emil Stauber: The castles of the Winterthur district and their families (= New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library. Volume 285). Buchdruckerei Winterthur AG, Winterthur 1953, pp. 353–354.
4. ^ Peter Ziegler: Wülflingen (rule). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
5. ^ Emil Stauber: The castles of the Winterthur district and their families (= New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library. Volume 285). Buchdruckerei Winterthur AG, Winterthur 1953, p. 354.
6. ^ Emil Stauber: The castles of the Winterthur district and their families (= New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library. Volume 285). Buchdruckerei Winterthur AG, Winterthur 1953, pp. 354–355.
7. ^ Emil Stauber: The castles of the Winterthur district and their families (= New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library. Volume 285). Buchdruckerei Winterthur AG, Winterthur 1953, p. 355.
8. ↑ Emanuel Dejung, Richard Zürcher, Hans Hofmann: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kantons Zürich, Volume VI: The City of Winterthur and the City of Zurich (Art History Summary) (= The Art Monuments of Switzerland. Volume 27). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1952, pp. 353–354.
9. ^ Emil Stauber: The castles of the Winterthur district and their families (= New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library. Volume 285). Buchdruckerei Winterthur AG, Winterthur 1953, p. 360.
10. ↑ Martin Leonhard: Rümlang, from. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
11. ^ Peter Ziegler: Wülflingen. From the beginning to the present (= New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library. Volume 305). Winterthur 1975, p. 27.
12. ^ Heinrich Boxler: Castles of Switzerland, Vol. 5: Cantons of Zurich and Schaffhausen . Silva-Verlag, Zurich 1982, p. 23.
13. ^ Emil Stauber: The castles of the Winterthur district and their families (= New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library. Volume 285). Buchdruckerei Winterthur AG, Winterthur 1953, p. 369.
14. ^ Peter Ziegler: Wülflingen. From the beginning to the present (= New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library. Volume 305). Winterthur 1975, p. 28.
15. ↑ Till Hirsekorn: Two stages, two million. In: Der Landbote , December 18, 2015, p. 4.
16. ^ Till millet grain: balancing act over the Totentäli. In: Der Landbote , July 19, 2016, p. 5.
17. ↑ Alt Wülflingen ruins are being extensively renovated . In: www.zueriost.ch . Retrieved April 2, 2017.
18. ↑ Tanja Altenburger: The Alt Wülflingen ruins are open again . In: Winterthurer Stadtanzeiger , September 27, 2018, p. 13.