Landenberg Castle

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Landenberg Castle
Today's rifle house on the Landenberg

Today's rifle house on the Landenberg

Alternative name (s): Sarnenburg
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Ministeriale
Place: Landenberg in Sarnen
Geographical location 46 ° 53 '48.8 "  N , 8 ° 14' 39.6"  E Coordinates: 46 ° 53 '48.8 "  N , 8 ° 14' 39.6"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred sixty-one thousand three hundred ninety-six  /  one hundred ninety-four thousand two hundred and ninety-one
Landenberg Castle (Canton of Obwalden)
Landenberg Castle

The castle Landsberg is the ruins of a hilltop castle on the hill Landsberg in the town of Sarnen in the canton of Obwalden in Switzerland .

history

The castle was originally known as Sarnenburg or simply Sarnen . Landenberg first appears in the 17th century.

The earliest fortifications on Landenberg probably go back to the early 11th century when the Counts of Lenzburg built a wooden fortress there. After the Lenzburg line died out in 1173, their goods around Sarnen were inherited by the Habsburgs . The Habsburgs built a stone ring wall around a large part of the hilltop. While parts of the wall are still visible, very little is known about the buildings within the wall. The castle was one of the largest castles in Central Switzerland. However, at the beginning of the 13th century, the castle was abandoned for unknown reasons. It is unclear whether the Sarner Hexenturm, built at the end of the 13th century, was part of the Landenberg complex, a replacement for it or simply a nearby castle.

The 15th century White Book of Sarnen tells the story of how local Swiss patriots stormed a castle at the beginning of the 14th century and burned it down on Christmas Eve while the Habsburg nobleman was attending mass. Traditionally, the attack on Landenberg Castle was believed to have occurred, although recent research suggests it may be the Witches Tower.

After the castle was abandoned, the walls were slowly broken open from building material and animals penned in. In the early 17th century, a drawing of the ruins shows that the castle walls were still there. At that time it was owned by Captain Marquard Seiler . After his death, his widow sold the castle and the hill to the canton of Obwalden. The first armory was built there around 1620 on the site of a medieval tower. In 1646 it was decided to set up the Landsgemeinde , the annual meeting of all voters in the canton, on the Landenberg. In order to hold these meetings, the floor was cleared and the walls repaired. The Landsgemeinde met in Landenberg until it was dissolved in 1998. During the construction of the armory and the shooting range, many of the remaining castle walls were torn down or buried. During the renovation of the Landsgemeinde square in 1895, parts of the old walls were excavated and renovated.

The shooting range and the armaments building

In the 18th century an armory and a shooting range were built on the site. The Landenberg armory is a Swiss cultural heritage of national importance. The ruin of the castle was the meeting point of the rural community for three centuries .

Today's armory was built in 1711. The baroque building was built by Hans Josef von Flüe . The cannons were housed on the large, open ground floor, while small weapons and armor were housed on the upper floors. The armory was used for military purposes until 1975. Today it is one of the few intact armories in Central Switzerland.

At the beginning of the 18th century a shooting range was built on the hill, but it was destroyed in a fire in 1747. The current shooting range building was built in 1752 by Johann Anton Singer . The building from 1752 has a large three-story center with symmetrical single-story wings, each crowned with an onion dome. On the upper floor of the center there is a richly decorated large ballroom or meeting room.

literature

  • Linus Birchler : The castles and palaces of the original Switzerland . Basel, 1929, pp. 77-79.
  • Thomas Bitterli: Swiss castle guide, including the Principality of Liechtenstein . Basel / Berlin 1995, No. 447.
  • Robert Durrer : The art monuments of the canton Unterwalden . Zurich, 1899–1928, pp. 546–556.
  • Fritz Hauswirth: Castles and Palaces of Switzerland, Vol. 6: Urschweiz and Glarus . Kreuzlingen, 1970, pp. 96-98.
  • Werner Meyer (Red.): Castles of Switzerland, Vol. 1: Cantons Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden , Glarus, Zug. Zurich, 1981, pp. 57-58.
  • Werner Meyer, Jakob Obrecht, Hugo Schneider: The wicked Türnli: Archaeological contributions to castle research in Urschweiz . Swiss contributions to the cultural history and archeology of the Middle Ages, Volume 11. Olten / Freiburg i.Br., 1984, pp. 143–196.

Web links

Commons : Landenberg, Sarnen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Niklaus von Flüe: Sarnen (community). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  2. ^ Sarnen Online: Sights. Retrieved December 15, 2018 .
  3. Nidwald: Le chateau de Landsberg à Sarnen Schloss Landsberg à Sarnen. Retrieved December 15, 2018 .
  4. a b Burgenwelt - Landenberg (OW) - Switzerland. Retrieved December 15, 2018 .
  5. Canton list A objects . In: KGS inventory . Federal Office of Civil Protection. 2009. Archived from the original on December 5, 2016. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  6. a b Sarnen Online: Sights. Retrieved December 15, 2018 .