Rapperswil Castle

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View from the south
View from the wooden bridge to Rapperswil Castle and St. Johann parish church
View from the Lindenhof
The coat of arms of the Rapperswil rule in the courtyard of the castle
Supraporta from the 15th century on the upper floor of the town hall : Rapperswil's coat of arms with supporting griffins.

The Rapperswil castle is in Rapperswil in the southwest of the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland . It sits enthroned on a rocky spur that protrudes a long way into Lake Zurich and is surrounded on three sides by water. The castle is naturally protected and dominates the old town below .

history

Castle and town of Rapperswil on an engraving by Matthäus Merian , around 1642
State of the hall before renovation on a drawing by Ferdinand Keller, around 1848

The castle was built between 1220 and 1230 by Vogt Rudolf von Rapperswil , who until then had a modest residence on the other side of the Obersee in Alt-Rapperswil . From his new place, Rudolf, who was appointed Count shortly afterwards, was able to easily monitor the waterway from Zurich to the Bündner passes as well as the streams of pilgrims to Einsiedeln Abbey and the cross traffic over the narrow lake at the lake dam . The town of Rapperswil soon developed at the foot of the castle.

In 1336, after an attempted coup, the Konstaffler fled to the castle. Together with Count Johann II von Habsburg-Laufenburg , they planned the Zurich Night of Murder in order to overthrow the old Zurich regime. The attack failed, however, and the mayor of Zurich, Rudolf Brun , soon took revenge. In the winter of 1350, Brun and his troops marched in front of Rapperswil, took the castle and the town and burned them both down. Shortly afterwards, Duke Albrecht of Austria had the castle and town rebuilt as the new owner.

After the Habsburg-Laufenburg line died out , the castle became the property of the city of Rapperswil in 1442. In 1464, the township of Habsburg- Austria bought itself out and concluded the " eternal covenant " with the Swiss Confederation , with the castle serving as the seat of the federal umbrella bailiffs until 1798 .

Between 1870 and 1927 the Polish National Museum , built by Władysław Plater , was housed in the castle . Louis Wethli created the Polish monument in 1869. After it was moved to Poland , the castle remained empty. In the period from 1936 to 1952 the rooms of the castle were used a second time for a museum of contemporary Poland, and during the Second World War this museum took over the cultural care of Polish soldiers interned in Switzerland in 1940 . In 1952 the museum's collection was transported to Poland and from then on the castle housed the international castle research institute and between 1962 and 1975 the Swiss Castle Museum. Since a renovation in 1975, a Polish museum has been housed within the walls of the castle for the third time: the Poland Museum, founded by Polish emigrants .

The Poland Museum is testimony to a long friendship between the Polish and Swiss. From 1870 onwards, the Polish tenants played a key role in saving the castle from collapse. During the renovation works from 1988–1990, they contributed to the renovation costs of the museum premises. In 2008 more than 9,000 people from 30 countries petitioned for the preservation of this traditional and symbolic museum in Rapperswil Castle. On October 11, 2012, a free newspaper launched a campaign against the renewal of the rental agreement between the Polish Museum and the local community of Rapperswil as the owner of the castle.

Today's castle

The castle, rebuilt by Albrecht II, forms an almost equilateral triangle, with each corner reinforced with a tower. The tallest tower in the southwest will keep or Gügeliturm known and has long been the seat of the high guard , which warned of Horn shocks the town and castle residents from approaching danger or flames. The pentagonal time tower in the east houses three bells and next to a sundial two large dials show the time. The large castle building is located between these two towers in a south-eastern position. In addition, battlements lead from the two corner towers to the third tower in the northwest, the Powder Tower . As outworks of the castle today served Bleulerhaus in the former Castle Street and the so-called Breny Tower .

  • Time tower with the two tower clocks, the bells and the sundial, view from the main square

  • Gügeliturm with partial view of the Lindenhof

  • The Polish Column of Freedom with the Powder Tower in the background

  • Hall

  • Herb garden and Polish garden monument, in the background the bell tower of the Liebfrauenkapelle the parish church

If you want to go into the closed inner courtyard, you first have to pass a double gate from the city and reach the castle terrace and the portal on the west side of the castle via a long, walled climb along the castle building.

The Polish Freedom Column has stood on the castle terrace, the Lindenhof , since 1868 as a symbol of Swiss solidarity with peoples who are struggling for their freedom. From the terrace you also have a wonderful view of the old town, Lake Zurich , the Rapperswil dam and the Alps in the distance . On the north side of the terrace, a supervised deer park with 10 to 15 fallow deer stretches down towards the lake, which is supposed to remind of the legend of the city's foundation. In addition to the Poland Museum, there is also a restaurant in the castle.

  • The inner courtyard is used as a garden restaurant in summer.

  • Poland Museum on the third floor of the Palas

  • Knight's Hall with wooden beams

  • The deer park and its residents

  • Castle, parish church, Liebfrauenkapelle , Herrenberg and Hauptplatz on the city model in the Rapperswil-Jona city museum

Web links

Commons : Rapperswil Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Polish Museum: Collection of signatures for the whereabouts of the Poland Museum in Rapperswil Castle in 2008 (PDF; 28 kB)
  2. ↑ Pro Schloss Rapperswil: History and significance of the Polish Museum  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.paradowski.ch  

Coordinates: 47 ° 13 ′ 36 "  N , 8 ° 49 ′ 6"  E ; CH1903:  seven hundred and four thousand four hundred and eighty-seven  /  231556