Aesch Castle

Aesch Castle
	Aesch Castle (east side) with park and fountain (2009)
Creation time :	1606
Conservation status:	houses the municipality of Aesch
Place:	Aesch
Geographical location	47 ° 27 '12 " N , 7 ° 35' 39" E Coordinates: 47 ° 27 '12 " N , 7 ° 35' 39" E ; CH1903: six hundred eleven thousand seven hundred and thirty / 255850

The Aesch Castle with its Castle Park and festive vaulted cellar is situated in the Swiss municipality of Aesch in Birseck .

location

Aesch Castle is located 500 meters northwest of the Klus and Angenstein Castle and 1500 meters north-northeast of the Pfeffingen ruins on the edge of the center of the village of Aesch in the canton of Basel-Landschaft .

history

The castle was built in 1605/06 by the 'Blarer von Wartensee' family. This family originally came from St. Gallen and had made wealth through the linen trade. Some of them settled in Schloss Wartensee near Rorschach , hence the name of this branch. When Jakob Christoph Blarer von Wartensee was elected canon of the cathedral monastery in Basel in 1575 , the interests of the rest of the Blarer family also expanded into the Basel region: JC Blarer was one of the main supporters of the Counter-Reformation in Birseck .

As part of the expansion of Blarer's power in the Basel region, JC Blarer appointed his brother Wolfgang Dietrich Blarer to be Obervogt in Pfeffingen in 1583 to ensure income ( tithes , interest, etc.). Many other privileges - e.g. B. the charter of JC Blarer of 1604 - continued to lead to a steady growth in the wealth of the Blarer family. Towards the end of his life (1608) he also commissioned his nephew Wilhelm Blarer to build Aesch Castle to consolidate and demonstrate the position the family had achieved. The whole castle with associated goods was then given to him in 1607 by JC Blarer; He was also exempted from all taxes by his episcopal uncle.

As early as 1702, the prince-bishop allowed the then Obervogt Johann Konrad Blarer to live in Aesch Castle instead of Pfeffingen: The clerk had to stay in Pfeffingen Castle. When Pfeffingen Castle was not considered to be a sensible seat for the Blarersche clan, neither in terms of its structural substance nor its prestige function, the Blarer family moved their dominion center entirely to Aesch Castle in 1740.

The castle was damaged during the Thirty Years' War , but was immediately rebuilt. At the time of the revolution , a hospital was set up there.

Finally, the castle was auctioned by the Blarer family in 1851 by the community of Aesch and rebuilt (installation of two classrooms and two teacher's apartments), renovated in 1900 (Rudolf Sandreuter, main entrance relocated to the village side, late Gothic windows, additional semicircular tower) and from 1909 as a school and Used the parish hall. The municipal administration has been active in it since the renovation in 1958/59 (restoring the original state).

Aesch Castle west facade (2009)

investment

Originally there was a hostel on the site of Schloss Aesch. The castle was built as a representative, multi-storey mansion from the beginning. Little emphasis was placed on the defensive capability of the facility: on the one hand, the nearby Pfeffingen Castle provided the family with this function - if they were still needed at all - and on the other hand, the powder guns were already so well developed at the time that castle-like facilities were no longer effective. The main building was built with a vaulted cellar. Several economic buildings were built on the north and west sides of the castle (viticulture, stables), some of which are still there today. The builder is not known with certainty, but - according to the receipts still in existence - it could be Michael Brauwn (today: Braun).

Baroque extensions to the palace took place in 1730 and 1740 and the French garden was also created. The wall around the whole complex was decorated with several turrets and pepper boxes and accessibility was ensured with lattice gates.

Northeast Stair Tower (2009)

Today, the rough structural parts of the castle largely show the state after the major extensions in the 18th century. However, the surrounding wall was adapted to the surroundings (for example, the eastern entrance was relocated from the lattice gate to the northeast tower, the wall and towers were partially removed). Due to the changed use, however, the interior fittings have been changed significantly.

The park is freely accessible to the public and the castle according to the opening times of the municipal administration. The vaulted cellar is now expanded for festive occasions and can be rented from the municipal administration. The Aesch Local History Museum is now located in the western, former economic buildings.

literature

Josef Baumann: The Blarer von Wartensee and the Blarer-Schloss zu Aesch. In: Baselbieter Heimatbuch. Liestal, Vol. 8 (1959), pp. 72-91.
Carl Roth: The castles and palaces of the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft. Birkhäuser , Basel 1932.

Copper engraving

Emanuel Büchel : Blarerschloss in Aesch, copper engraving, 1754 (Kupferstichkabinett in the Kunstmuseum Basel )

Web links

Commons : Schloss Aesch - Collection of images, videos and audio files