Altenklingen Castle

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Altenklingen Castle with the Wiborada Chapel
Altenklingen Castle around 1760. Copper engraving by David Herrliberger
Walther von Klingen in a tournament

The Altenklingen Castle is a castle in the late Renaissance style in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. It is on the territory of the municipality of Wigoltingen and is privately owned.

Older story

At the site of today's castle there was once a defensive structure, which was built around 1200 by the Lords of Klingen . Until 1395 the castle served as a residence for the Lords of Klingen. As one of the oldest baron families in Thurgau, they founded several localities and monasteries, for example the village of Klingenzell , the monasteries of Feldbach near Steckborn on Lake Constance and Sion near Klingnau in Aargau, and the priory of Klingenzell near Eschenz . From the 11th century until 1396, the barons of Klingen exercised the lower jurisdiction of Märstetten and Illhart . In addition, they received jurisdiction over Wigoltingen from the cathedral chapter.

In the 13th century, the von Klingen were in the service of the Habsburgs . Walther von Klingen (1240–1286), whose name appears in documents from 1240, was a confidante of Count Rudolf, the future King Rudolf I of Habsburg . Walther von Klingen was a minstrel , the Codex Manesse contains eight of his compositions. Klingen is also mentioned there as a victorious tournament knight. He first lived in the town of Klingnau, and later in Basel, where he also died. The pious clergyman and former abbess of the St. Mangen monastery in St. Gallen, Wiborada von Klingen , was martyred in her cell during the invasion of the Huns in 926. She was therefore canonized by Pope Clement II in 1047 as the first woman ever. Thanks to her foresight, the famous monastery library of the St. Gallen monastery was saved from destruction by the Huns by advising the monks of the monastery to evacuate the library to the island of Reichenau. That is why she is venerated today as the patron saint of libraries. The coat of arms of Herr von Klingen, a silver lion on a black background, is now Engwang's coat of arms; a village in the municipality of Wigoltingen. The coat of arms of Wigoltingen also bears the silver lion.

The von Klingen family died out in 1395 after several of them died as soldiers at the side of Leopold of Austria at the Battle of Sempach .

In the course of the following time the castle changed hands several times. The castle once belonged to the Bussnangs and von Enne. They had acquired the castle through marriage and were able to defend it successfully in 1407 when it was attacked by the Appenzell people and the citizens of St. Gallen during the Appenzell Wars . Then Altenklingen came into the possession of the von Muntprat von Konstanz and the von Breitenlandenberg .

In 1559, after the death of Hans Ulrich von Landenberg , the castle came into the possession of his sister Rosina, wife of Eberhard Brümsi . Her son Berthold, court lord in Berg TG, sold the castle in 1585 to the Sankt Gallen city judge, councilor and sack master Leonard Zollikofer for the price of 25,500 guilders.

The new Zollikofer building

Zollikofer coat of arms

Leonard Zollikofer (1529–1587) had the old complex demolished and commissioned the architect Mathäus Höbel from Kempten to build a new castle. In 1586 the childless Junker Leonard Zollikofer donated the castle and the Freiherrschaft Altenklingen as entails for the four sons of his deceased eldest brother Laurenz and the six sons of his second brother Georg. These had contributed a sum of 22,000 guilders to the establishment of the rule and were given the designation “co-founder”. In 1585 Leonhard was issued a Landsässenbrief by the Eight Old Places , according to which Altenklingen received all freedoms, rights and justice of the aristocratic class in Thurgau, including lower jurisdiction and thus belonging to the court lordship in Thurgau .

The rule of Altenklingen was preserved for centuries. It was not until 1798, with the liberation of Thurgau, that the Altenklingen rule dissolved. Since the Fideikommiss Schloss Altenklingen, founded by Leonhard Zollikofer with his nephews of the Georg and Laurenz lines, continued to exist, the castle estate has remained in the possession of the Zollikofer von Altenklingen family to this day (as of 2014), managed by a family council.

The first known Zollikofer, Hans, lived in the free imperial city of Constance in the 14th century . A Konrad Zollikofer died there in 1443 as a guild master and butcher. In the 15th century, the Zollikofers emigrated to St. Gallen , where they founded linen weaving mills and trading houses for linen from the end of the 15th century and dominated this sector for at least 200 years. They spread at home and abroad. Already in 1471 both branches (the "red-haired" and the "black-haired" ) of Emperor Friedrich III. received a letter of coat of arms and on October 19, 1578 Leonhard and his brothers and nephews were raised from the "red branch" to the hereditary and tournamentable imperial nobility; In 1594 the same happened for the "black" Zollikofer. Danish and French letters of nobility were also issued in the 17th century .

Previous owners of Altenklingen
Barons of blades 11th century to 1395
Barons of Busnang 1395-1396
Barons of Enne 1396-1419
Muntprat from Spiegelberg 1419-1441
Landenberg from Breitenlandenberg 1441-1559
The Brümsi family 1559-1585
The Zollikofer von Altenklingen family since 1585

Facility

Altenklingen Castle comprises the large castle (the north wing) with three floors and thirteen rooms, the small castle (the south wing) standing at right angles to it and a chapel dedicated to St. Wiborada (the patron saint of libraries). The enclosure wall and its corner turrets, which used to give the castle a defensive character, were demolished in the 19th century. The castle is entered via a bridge that leads into the gate of the small castle, from where you can access the inner courtyard. The portal of the Great Palace is framed by a Renaissance fresco and crowned by an alliance coat of arms of Zollikofer blades.

In the 19th century, a large part of the interior fittings fell victim to a restoration and the approximately twenty meters deep cistern, which was largely drilled into the rock, was filled in. The furnishings, stoves, furniture, pictures, books, etc. that exist today have been collected over the last four centuries. Rooms from different eras are the ancestral hall, the Schaffhauser Stube, the Reutterstube and the Kapellstube. On each floor of the staircase there are large hallways from which the various halls and rooms can be reached.

Altenklingen Castle and the associated farms are still owned by the Zollikofer family to this day. The archives of the Altenklingen judiciary are located in the Thurgau State Archives (main fund StATG C).

photos

  • North side of Altenklingen Castle

  • Pond at the entrance to the castle property

  • View from the castle entrance to the bridge and castle property

  • Castle entrance with family coat of arms

See also

Web links

Commons : Altenklingen Castle  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Konrad Falko Wutscher: Altenklingen Castle in Thurgau. In: ARX. Castles and palaces in Bavaria, Austria and South Tyrol. Vol. 35, No. 2, 2013, ISSN  0394-0624 , pp. 10-14.

Coordinates: 47 ° 36 ′ 8 "  N , 9 ° 4 ′ 41"  E ; CH1903:  seven hundred twenty-three thousand two hundred eighty-one  /  273681