Jegenstorf Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jegenstorf Castle from the south (2018)

The Jegenstorf Castle is a castle in the town of Jegenstorf in the canton of Bern in Switzerland . The building, which essentially dates back to around 1200, was expanded in various ways in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period. The eastern corner tower was probably built around 1600. Towards the end of the 17th century the moat was filled in and garden parterres created. In 1720, the renovation took place on an almost symmetrical floor plan, which gave the house the character of the baroque country estate that can be found today. In private ownership until 1934, Jegenstorf Castle was opened in 1942 as a museum for Bernese living culture, and has been owned by the Jegenstorf Castle Foundation since 1955.

history

Coat of arms alliance Ulrich von Bonstetten and Anna von Neuenburg (1606), in the Jegenstorf church
Oldest representation of the castle by Albrecht Kauw (1670)

Origins, Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

Jegenstorf Castle (1719), excerpt from the rulership plan by Johann Adam Riediger (1680–1756) (Bern State Archives)
Niklaus von Wattenwyl (1653–1691), Lord of Jegenstorf and Oberdiessbach, portrait by Johannes Dünz (1672)

With the mention of Hugo von Jegistorf in a document from 1175, we meet for the first time not only a member of this ruling family, but also the place name itself. The year of Berthold II von Zähringen's death (1111) is often considered legendary in publications about Jegenstorf Castle, but not proven date of construction of the original moated castle . The Zähringian allod Jegenstorf was administered by the lords of Jegistorf , the Zähringer followers , as a hereditary fiefdom. Shares in the rulership, shares in the church rate and interest goods later became the property of the Buwli, von Erlach , Fries , Gloggner, von Schwanden, Spilmann , von Torberg and Zigerli families . From 1316 Rudolf von Erlach († 1360) was co-lord, and in later generations the Bernese mayors Ulrich von Erlach († 1465) and Rudolf von Erlach (1448–1507).

The predecessor of today's Jegenstorf Castle, designed as a Niederungsburg , was presumably a wooden castle around 1200 , which is comparable to the construction of the castles of Aarberg , Belp , Köniz and Nidau . Wooden towers and fortifications gradually disappeared in the 13th and 14th centuries or were rebuilt in stone. The "Wooden Castle" in Belp, which existed until the 18th century, was an exception. Between 1285 and 1519, various members of the von Erlach family acquired shares in the Jegenstorf estate through marriage, inheritance and purchase. Johann von Erlach became sole lord of Jegenstorf in 1519 and, in the same year, Schultheiss von Bern . The governors of the two orphaned great-grandchildren Johann von Erlach sold the Jegenstorf estate in 1583, before their ward Franz Ludwig and Hans Rudolf could reach their majority. The buyer was Ulrich von Bonstetten (1548–1607), who married Anna von Neuchâtel in 1577 and thereby became Baron Vaumarcus and Lord Travers and Laviron. The construction of the southeast corner tower, which takes the historicizing step towards the two-tower castle, is likely to fall during this time. Castle complexes with originally two towers appear in large numbers as stately symbols on seals of cities and noble families in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Due to a lack of studies and documents, structural changes can only be assumed by the end of the 17th century. It was only from 1670 onwards that modifications to Jegenstorf Castle could be identified on the basis of drawings and plans. When Anna von Bonstetten (1626–1660) married Niklaus von Wattenwyl (1624–1679), the Jegenstorf estate came into his possession in 1675. He bequeathed it to his son Niklaus (1653–1691), also called rycher Wattenweiler , in 1679 . Possibly the new owner had the moat filled in, alleys and a garden parterre built. The conversion of Jegenstorf Castle into a castle was carried out in a first step by equipping the main building ( Palas ) and the southeast tower with windows and a garden door down to the ground floor. The keep received identical double windows on four floors. As early as 1715, Niklaus von Wattenwyl's son of the same name sold Jegenstorf Castle to his brother-in-law and third cousin Samuel von Wattenwyl (1662–1739).

Baroque country house

Village, church and Jegenstorf castle, etching by Johann Ludwig Nöthiger (1743)
Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach, Herr zu Jegenstorf, portrait by Robert Gardelle (1723)
Jegenstorf Castle from the south, gouache by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1764)

Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach toured German royal courts, France, England and Holland from 1715 to 1720. In 1720 he acquired the Jegenstorf estate together with the Villars-Dessus vineyard in Bougy from Samuel von Wattenwyl for 100,000 pounds . On his extensive travels, Albrecht Friedrich visited several palace complexes and brought his impressions home with him. Maybe he designed the renovation himself and handed over the construction management to a foreman. Work by the Eisenstadt master craftsman Johann Paulus Nader († 1771) is documented for the year 1725 . It is stonemasonry and masonry work in the castle courtyard. The main features of the gardens designed by Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach have been preserved to this day. The palace, which was based on the Baroque model, had all-round visibility and now had four towers, a northern intermediate wing and a new northern and western entrance.

Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach sold the Jegenstorf estate and castle to his son Karl Ludwig in 1748, after he had taken over Hindelbank from his father . Karl Ludwig von Erlach exchanged Jegenstorf Castle, now without sovereign rights, in 1758 for land validity and extra money with Anton Ludwig Stürler . Two gouaches from Jegenstorf Castle by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm have survived from Stürler's time . In 1765 Anton Ludwig Stürler sold the house to his brother Johann Rudolf Stürler (1722–1784), known as Mylord , who was the clerk of the court and later the governor of Köniz. His widow Elisabeth Stürler – Mutach (1736–1818) was the sole owner of Jegenstorf Castle from 1784 to 1789. From 1789 her son Johann Rudolf von Stürler (1771–1861) owned the castle. He experienced the March days of 1798 in the castle and later reported that his richly filled wine cellar was able to prevent the castle from further looting and devastation by the French. According to his own account, he sold the castle to his distant cousin Rudolf Gabriel von Stürler in 1812 for financial reasons.

English landscape garden

Thanks to the fortune of his mother Katharina Salome von Wurstemberger (1731–1803), Rudolf Gabriel von Stürler (1767–1832) had the necessary means to transform the palace grounds into an English landscape garden ; the baroque garden parterres were partially dissolved. He had the now-mighty plane trees planted, as illustrated by a vedute from 1819. The childless Stürler bequeathed ownership of the castle to his godchild Eduard Rudolf von Stürler (1814–1905).

Neo-baroque renovation

Arthur von Stürler with his family in front of Jegenstorf Castle (around 1890)

Jegenstorf Castle has remained almost unchanged since the redesign in the 1720s and was in a poor structural condition around 1900. Arthur Albert Vinzenz von Stürler (1874–1934) had the building renovated and redesigned in the neo-baroque style between 1913 and 1916 by the architects Willy Stettler and Fritz Hunziker . The elaborate decorative paintings in the large salon were carried out by the decorative painter Alfred de Quervain (1873–1964). The walls, ceilings and floors were particularly affected by the radical measures. In addition, a high level of comfort was met at the time by installing a heater as well as electrical and sanitary installations. The stabilization and heightening of the keep and the installation of a concrete ceiling were planned and carried out by Robert Maillart .

Museum for Bernese living culture

The red salon on the ground floor with works by Mathäus Funk (2016)

Two years after Arthur von Stürler's death, the spacious castle property was auctioned off by bankruptcy authorities. In the run-up to the auction, Stürler's son-in-law, the banker Armand von Ernst, founded the "Association for the Preservation of Jegenstorf Castle" with the help of the Bernese regional president at the time, Walter Bösiger. This association bought the castle with funds from the cantonal lottery fund and intended to open the house to the public in order to operate it as a museum for Bernese living culture from the 17th to 19th centuries. From 1942 onwards, several Bern families (Bonstetten, Fischer, Mülinen, Tavel) made pictures and furniture available on permanent loan to equip the empty rooms. In 1955, the association founded the Jegenstorf Castle Foundation, which has owned the domain and operates the museum ever since. There are usually special exhibitions from May to October.

From autumn 1944 to summer 1945, the castle was the seat of the Commander-in-Chief of the Swiss Army in World War II , General Guisan . In November 1954, the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie stayed at Jegenstorf Castle during his Swiss state visit.

collection

The extensive collections include furniture by Mathäus Funks , his brother Johann Friedrich Funk and his son Johann Friedrich Funk , Christoph Hopfengärtner , Johannes Äbersolds and Carl Franz Hossfeld . The castle rooms house the largest exhibition of Bernese portraits. This includes important works by the painters Joseph Werner , Johannes Dünz , Johann Rudolf Huber , Jakob Emanuel Handmann , Johann Ludwig Aberli , Joseph Esperlin , Pierre-Nicolas Legrand and Johann Friedrich Dietler .

There are numerous Bernese marble fireplaces and tiled stoves from all over Switzerland in the castle rooms . The last owner of the castle, Arthur von Stürler, acquired these from various demolition or renovation objects. Most of the fireplace surrounds (Rosenlaui marble, Zwelütschinen marble, Merligen marble) come from the workshop of Johann Friedrich Funk (I.).

Permanent exhibitions on the poet Rudolf von Tavel , the pedagogue and economist Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg and the Economic Society of Bern complement the collections. In the grotto of the large pond to the south is the cast iron statue Die Badende , based on the original by the French sculptor Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain (1710–1795) presented in the Salon de Paris in 1767 .

  • Objects from the collection

  • Portrait of Niklaus Tscharner by Johann Rudolf Huber

  • Amber tea caddy for Cornelis Tromp (after 1676)

  • Schreibkommode Louis XV of Matthew Funk (1765)

  • Pendule, attributed to Mathäus Funk

  • Portrait of Marianne Jenner by Jakob Emanuel Handmann

  • Niklaus Emanuel Tscharner, painting by August Friedrich Oelenhainz (1792)

  • Folding secretary Directoire by Christoph Hopfengärtner

  • The family of the cloth master Samuel Brunner (1796)

Archives

literature

Beaker with Stürler coat of arms (around 1730)
  • Bernese writing furniture of the 18th century. ed. by the Jegenstorf Castle Foundation, Jegenstorf 2008 (exhibition catalog, Jegenstorf Castle, 10 May - 12 October 2008).
  • Hermann von Fischer: Living culture in old Bern from the 17th to the 19th century in Jegenstorf Castle. Bern 1959.
  • Hans A. Haeberli: From the history of the owners of Jegenstorf Castle. Redrawing and catalog of the exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the Jegenstorf Castle Association. 1936-1986. Edited by the Jegenstorf Castle Foundation and Association, Jegenstorf 1987.
  • Georges Herzog: Jegenstorf Castle. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 339). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1983, ISBN 978-3-85782-339-8 .
  • Manuel Kehrli: castle, palace and residential museum. Jegenstorf Castle and the changing demands of its owners . In: Alpenhorn calendar. Brattig for the Bernese Mittel- and Oberland, vol. 80 (2005), pp. 140-150.
  • Manuel Kehrli: “Je la trouvay à mon goût”. The Bernese castles and their interiors in the 18th century , in: Journal for Swiss Archeology and Art History, Vol. 72 (2015), pp. 273–284. doi : 10.5169 / seals-632560
  • Toni P. Labhart : Chimneys made from Bernese marble. Jegenstorf Castle. Jegenstorf Castle Foundation, Bern 2003, ISBN 3-9522728-0-9 .
  • Mario Marguth: Jegenstorf Castle as the general's command post. In: Bern journal for history and local history. 7th year, 1945, ISSN  0005-9420 , pp. 244-248, online .
  • Heinrich Türler and Emanuel Jirka Propper: The town house in the canton of Bern, Part II. Zurich 1922, pp.  LXVII − LVII and plates 70–72.
  • Jegenstorf Castle. From the castle to the chateau. Jegenstorf Castle through the centuries. ed. from the Jegenstorf Castle Foundation, Bern 2004, ISBN 3-9522728-1-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 6.
  2. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 3.
  3. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 3.
  4. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 3.
  5. ↑ Häberli 1987, p. 17.
  6. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 8.
  7. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 3.
  8. ↑ Hausbuch Johann Paulus Nader (1724–1745), DQ 436, pp. 11–15. in the catalog of the Bern State Archives .
  9. ↑ Kehrli 2015, p. 276.
  10. ^ Jegenstorf Castle Foundation, Inv. No. 2167.
  11. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 18.
  12. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 19.
  13. ^ Son of the architect Ludwig Samuel Stürler .
  14. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, pp. 20-21.
  15. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 20.
  16. ^ For a list of the exhibitions from 1942 to 2004, see Jegenstorf 2004, pp. 32–33.
  17. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, pp. 22-23.
  18. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 24.
  19. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 28.
  20. ↑ Jegenstorf 2004, p. 30.

See also

Web links

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

Coordinates: 47 ° 2 ′ 52 "  N , 7 ° 30 ′ 34"  E ; CH1903:  605381  /  210752