Horben Castle

Horben Castle
	Horben Castle
Creation time :	1700
Conservation status:	receive
Place:	Beinwil (Freiamt)
Geographical location	47 ° 13 '12.3 " N , 8 ° 19' 36.3" O Coordinates: 47 ° 13 '12.3 " N , 8 ° 19' 36.3" E ; CH1903: 667,270 / 230286

The Castle Horben is a small castle in Beinwil (Freiamt) in the Swiss canton of Aargau . It is 818 meters above sea level on the Horben plateau, on the ridge of the Lindenberg near the border with the canton of Lucerne . The building was built at the beginning of the 18th century as the summer residence of the monks of the nearby Muri Monastery and is a cultural asset of national importance . Wallpaper paintings by Caspar Wolf are of particular value .

history

According to Acta Murensia, the Muri monastery already owned 16 Jucharten land and a dairy in the 12th century . In the years 1700/1701, Abbot Plazidus Zurlauben had a summer residence or rest home built high above the valley for the monks of the Benedictine abbey . The work was under the direction of the bricklayer Hans Rey and the carpenter Hans Mäder, the cost was 1183 guilders . In 1730, Prince Abbot Gerold Haimb commissioned the building of the neighboring castle chapel, which is consecrated to Saints Wendelin and Ubaldus.

The castle was expanded for the first time in 1739, and a fountain was added four years later. The building was given its present form between 1762 and 1764 when Prince Abbot Bonaventura Bucher expanded it into a Baroque residential palace. Caspar Wolf , one of the most famous alpine and landscape painters of his time, created valuable wallpaper paintings in the abbot and in the hunting room. The stucco ceiling in the hunting room comes from Johann Elias Ridinger .

After the abolition of the monastery in 1841, the castle went into private ownership and was used for various purposes, for example as a restaurant and spa . In 1913 it came into the possession of the Borsinger family. This had the subsequently added outbuilding for goat's milk and whey cures demolished and the now slightly neglected castle restored. Unlike the chapel, the castle, which serves as a private residence, is not open to the public. Both buildings have been a listed building since 1963 .

Building

Before the expansion in 1739, the castle had two floors with 2 × 3 axes under a hipped gable roof . Today it counts 4 × 5 axles. On the eaves sides, two main floors follow the low ground floor, and there are four floors on the gable sides. A hexagonal onion dome rises above the roof . The corners of the house are framed in pilaster strips , the windows in arches . The arched and framed main portal is suspected of having a round gable .

The hunting room is in the northeast of the first floor. The wallpaper painting combines motifs from the history of the Habsburgs (founders of the monastery), hunting scenes and scenes from the Bible in a representation of an ideal landscape . Among other things, the murder of King Albrecht I , King Rudolf I with the hunting party, the metaphor of the Good Shepherd , Christ with the Samaritan woman and the parables of the Good Samaritan and the prodigal son are depicted . The stucco pattern shows a wide, empty mirror with a ledge, broken up by rocaille cartouches at the corners and in the middle of the sides. The main theme of the wallpaper paintings in the abbot's room is the legend of St. Benedict of Nursia , which is set in a mountainous landscape with a torrent and a wooden bridge. The stucco work has a pattern similar to that in the hunting room. In the corner is a tower furnace created by Michael Leonz Küchler in 1764 , on whose blue and white tiles ruins and harbor landscapes are depicted.

St. Wendelin Castle Chapel

The St. Wendelin Chapel is located south of the castle and measures 7 × 4 meters and has a small choir closed on three sides and three arched windows on each of the long sides. A hexagonal ridge turret with an onion helmet and a small bell rises above the south end, and Tuscan columns carry the sign at the north end. Inside there is a flat beamed ceiling with stucco decorations. Behind the choir lattice stands the altar with gilded carvings ( acanthus and shell motifs) erected in 1745 , the work of the Fürstenberg court carpenter Matthäus Baisch. The main sheet shows the Good Shepherd, the top sheet shows the chapel patron Wendelin. Half-life-size statues of Saints Antonius and Wendelin stand on consoles on the choir arch , and a relief statue of Our Lady on the east wall .

Surroundings

The Wissenbach rises on the west side of the castle and feeds the castle pond.

The Horben high plateau with the castle is a popular destination, especially on weekends. In summer there is an extensive network of hiking trails . In winter, when there is enough snow, a short ski lift is in operation in the immediate vicinity and three cross- country trails are groomed. The Lindenberg trail is 12 kilometers long, the Horben trail 4.4 kilometers. Another 2.2 kilometer long trail is illuminated at night.

literature

Georg Germann: The art monuments of the canton Aargau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History . Volume V, Muri District. Birkhäuser, Basel 1967, p. 60-68 .

Web links

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