Hegi Castle

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View from the west
East Side

The Hegi Castle is located in the Quartier Hegi in the east of the city of Winterthur in the Swiss canton of Zurich . It is a typical example of a late Gothic mansion in north-eastern Switzerland. The name is derived from the word Hag ; zurichdeutsch for fence. The castle is classified as a cultural asset of national importance .

history

The builders of the complex are the Lords of Hegi , who were first mentioned in a document in 1225 with Wetzel I. The castle stood on the land of the Bishop of Constance, whose ministerials were the Lords of Hegi. In addition, they worked for the abbot of the Petershausen monastery as Meier in Wiesendangen and owned Kyburg and later Habsburg fiefs. The last male representative of the family, Hugo IV , handed the castle over to Jakob von Hohenlandenberg, the husband of his sister Barbara, around 1460. Under Jacob's sons Ulrich and Hugo, Hegi was greatly expanded. Hugo, the most important representative of the family, was Bishop of Constance from 1496 to 1532 .

Drawing by Felix Bluntschli, 1742

In 1519 the rule of Hegi came into the possession of the Aargau family through the marriage of Barbara von Hohenlandenberg with Kaspar von Hallwyl . Hans von Hallwyl acquired lower jurisdiction over the village of Hegi and bought additional rights, making Hegi the center of a small lordship. In 1587 the city of Zurich prevented the castle from being sold to the people of Winterthur. She bought it herself and set up an upper bailiwick in it. Nevertheless, Hegi remained a fiefdom of the Diocese of Constance .

After the end of the Old Confederation in 1798, Hegi Castle first came into the possession of the Fahrner family, then to various other owners. In 1915 the castle came into the possession of the Zurich history professor Friedrich Hegi-Naef (1878–1930).

In 1947 the city of Winterthur bought the castle for 358,000 francs. She opened it to the public and opened a youth hostel in parts of the building in 1953 , which was closed in 2000. Today the castle serves as a museum and is used by the Schloss Hegi association for cultural events.

In old pictures a plant garden is shown on the east side. In 2012, a new garden with old vegetables was created based on this model. In a second stage, a bouquet and herb garden is to be built in the south. Cooperation with the University of Education in Zurich and Northeastern Switzerland is sought.

Building history

Plant plan

The building history can be divided into three stages. A tower with a floor plan of 9 by 10 meters and 1.6 meter thick walls forms the center and is also the oldest part of the complex. Before 1707 it had a wooden upper facade and was originally only accessible via a high entrance on the north side. Later direct entrances were created from the adjacent buildings.

The Hegi castle was fundamentally redesigned around 1500 by the brothers Ulrich and Hugo von Landenberg. They had the three-storey knight's house built on the north side, a 28-meter-long frame structure. A circular wall was built on the other three sides and round towers were built at three corners, but they are more symbolic than defensive in character.

Northwest corner

The two-storey hexagonal chapel tower was built on the northeast corner. The entire complex was surrounded by a moat that was fed by an arm of the Eulach . It was replenished in the 18th century. It is uncertain whether the tower was surrounded by a moat before. In 1548, the chronicler Johannes Stumpf described Hegi Castle as a Weiherhaus.

Under the Zurich bailiffs in 1613 under Johann Jakob Gessner, the courtyard on the west side of the residential tower was roofed and in the new building, the Gessnerhaus, stables and rooms for servants were furnished. Presumably a little later, the front building was built on the south side, which was given its present form in 1805. In 1707 the wooden upper facade of the old residential tower fell victim to a fire. It was replaced by a bricked-up storey and given a gable roof. In 1805 the entrance side was redesigned based on designs by Hans Conrad Bluntschli (1737–1812).

Friedrich Hegi-Naef had the castle carefully restored between 1915 and 1930. In the process, annoying additions from earlier times were also removed.

  • 1904 before restoration

  • 1924 after restoration

Spaces

The “late Gothic room” with its vaulted wooden ceiling on the first floor dates from around 1500 and was brought back to Hegi from the Stein am Rhein museum . The green relief tiled stove dates from the beginning of the 17th century and was brought to the castle from Wagenhausen in 1919 .

chapel

The “Untere Vogtstube” with its paintings and glass windows from the 17th century is also on the first floor. The alliance coats of arms Hohenlandenberg-Hegi and Hohenlandenberg-von Mülinen are shown in the window reveal. The decorative window paintings and the frescoes restored in 1919 are attributed to Hans Haggenberg . The green tower furnace dates from the late 16th century; he was brought from Rheineck to Hegi.

The “Obere Vogtstube” is on the second floor. On the ceiling of the hall there are remains of carvings from the church of Erlenbach , which were created by Blesy Wercher in 1496. The painted wall slogans date from the 17th century, the remains of the frescoes from 1512 from the Turbenthal church . The colored heraldic disks date from the 16th and 17th centuries. The "Upper Chapel", a polygonal room with an eight-part star vault, was probably built by Hugo's father Jakob von Hohenlandenberg.

  • Lower Vogtstube

  • Upper Vogtstube

  • Vestments painting

  • Gothic room

  • Attic

literature

  • Fritz Hauswirth: Castles and palaces in Switzerland . Volume 4: Zurich, Schaffhausen . 2nd edition, Neptun, Kreuzlingen 1972, DNB 890532192 ; Swiss Traffic Center, Zurich 1975, DNB 208492801 .
  • Werner Meyer : Castles of Switzerland . Volume 5. Silva , Zurich 1983.
  • Hans Martin Gubler: Castles Wülflingen, Hegi and Mörsburg near Winterthur . Society for Swiss Art History , Basel 1974, DNB 99465684X (= Swiss Art Guide ).
  • Emil Stauber: The castles of the Winterthur district and their families (285th New Year's sheet of the Winterthur City Library ). Winterthur, 1953.
  • Thomas Bitterli: Swiss Castle Guide . Reihardt, Basel / Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-7245-0865-4 .

Web links

Commons : Schloss Hegi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lexicon
  2. ↑ 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).
  3. ↑ Hegi Castle

Coordinates: 47 ° 30 '29.7 "  N , 8 ° 46' 17.3"  E ; CH1903:  700406  /  two hundred and sixty-two thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven