Regensberg Castle

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Regensberg Castle
View from the warehouse (May 2010)

View from the warehouse (May 2010)

Alternative name (s): New Regensberg
Creation time : around 1245
Castle type : Höhenburg , conversion to a castle
Conservation status: Receive
Standing position : Free nobles
Construction: Humpback cuboid
Place: Regensberg
Geographical location 47 ° 28 '58.1 "  N , 8 ° 26' 17.3"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 28 '58.1 "  N , 8 ° 26' 17.3"  E ; CH1903:  675,333  /  259596
Height: 605  m above sea level M.
Regensberg Castle (Canton of Zurich)
Regensberg Castle

The Regensberg castle stands in Regensberg in the Canton of Zurich on the eastern warehouses ridge , a spur of the Jura mountains .

history

middle Ages

Presumably around 1040 Baron Lütold von Affoltern built the Altburg on a moraine hill near Regensdorf , on today's border between the city of Zurich and Regensdorf, not far from Lake Katzensee . His descendants later called themselves Freiherren von Regensberg . The people of Regensberg experienced their heyday at the beginning of the 13th century in northeastern Switzerland , in what was then Zurichgau . They consolidated their position of power through intensive castle building, city founding and the foundation of the Fahr and Rüti monasteries .

City and Castle Regensberg on an engraving by Matthäus Merian (1654)
Modern jumps in the 17th century
Grave slab of Baron Ulrich von Regensberg († 1280)

It is not clear whether Lütold V or his son Ulrich founded the town of Neu-Regensberg, today Regensberg, around 1240/45. It is certain that after the death of Lütold V (around 1250) his two sons, Lütold VI. and Ulrich von Regensberg, shared the inheritance. Among other things, Ulrich secured the headquarters in Neu-Regensberg. The Regensberg feud of 1267/68, which has only been handed down in fragments and which ended with the economic decline of the Regensbergs and the sale of the properties to Habsburg liege lords, fell into his time. Ulrich von Regensberg died around 1280 and was buried in the Barfüsserkloster . His very well-preserved grave slab, with the image of an idealized knight figure, can be viewed in the Swiss National Museum , a replica is at the fountain at the entrance to the town of Regensberg. Ulrich's son Lütold VIII also had to sell Neu-Regensberg to Habsburg Austria in 1302 , and the Regensbergers withdrew to their old ancestral castle.

The Habsburgs pledged the castle and town several times until it was acquired by the city of Zurich in 1409 and from 1417 onwards it became the seat of the governor of the governorate of Regensberg ("outer bailiwick") of the city of Zurich. Whitsun 1443 Regensberg was conquered by the Confederates in the Old Zurich War (1436-50) , but not destroyed. The only known victim is said to have been the Vogt von Regensberg, as was the Landvogt von Grüningen a few months later. Zurich occupied Regensberg again with troops as early as 1444.

Early modern times until today

In 1540 the town was destroyed by a major fire, only the castle was largely spared. The hall was demolished in 1583/85 and replaced by a new building. From 1689 a 'modern' fortification with entrenchments surrounded the castle and old town.

In the spring of 1798 French revolutionary troops marched into the Old Confederation . On March 13, 1798, the Zurich council abdicated: the bailiffs were abolished. With the “Helvetic Revolution” , the last bailiff left his official residence in the palace and Regensberg was incorporated into the Bülach district. After the end of the Helvetic Republic, Regensberg became the district capital in 1803 , but lost this function in 1871 to Dielsdorf , which had gained in importance through the construction of the railway.

The palace remained the seat of the authorities until 1865, and the main building housed the district prison. In 1883, on the initiative of the non-profit society of the canton of Zurich, today's “Support Foundation for Children and Young People of the Regensberg Castle Foundation” was established.

In the Zürcher Unterland , three staggered defense belts were built from 1935 as part of the delay area of Unterländer not engaged in active service . To the third belt at the height of Stadlerberg –Bülach and east of it belonged the barricade Stadel with heavy artillery and anti- tank barriers as well as the medieval town of Regensberg with machine gun position within the preserved historical rampart of the city wall (southeast half of the horn factory of the former Dielsdorf gate).

investment

View from the camps to the town

Regensberg was designed as a castle with an adjoining town and was expanded to be 'modern' according to the criteria of the time. In the so-called upper castle, two rows of houses surrounded the generously laid out main square, where the 57-meter deep water well in Switzerland was carved into the limestone . Similarities in the conception and planning of the castle town with Grüningen , also a founding of the Barons von Regensberg, cannot be overlooked.

The lower castle, which nestles against the castle hill in the western depression, was probably not built until the 14th century. It was not surrounded by a wall ring and was not included in the modernization (1689) of the fortifications of the upper castle and the bailiff's seat.

The round, five-story keep with a wall thickness of three meters , built from local limestone, is atypical for northeastern Switzerland . The nine-meter-diameter tower originally had a high entrance and a pointed helmet roof instead of today's ground-level entrance , which was destroyed by lightning in 1766. With this design, Lütold V. probably took his wife Berta von Neuenburg into consideration, in whose homeland in western Switzerland round towers were common at the time.

North adjoining the round tower was a great hall , which had largely survived the devastating fire of 1540th In 1583 and 1585 Landvogt Vogel had the palace torn down to the foundation walls and erected a three-storey building in its place, which largely corresponds to today's northern castle wing. The entire complex, together with the economic buildings - wash house, stables , garden, chapel - was surrounded by a curtain wall, and a gate led into the upper town.

In 1890 the main building was widened and converted into a school building. New buildings were built in the west and the “lower house” was converted into living quarters and a wickerwork workshop.

gallery

  • Palas, on the left the round tower

  • Round tower

  • Heart well

  • Oberburg

  • 17th century ski jump with Scharten Mg bunker

literature

  • Rolf Meier and Bruno Meier (eds.): The Lägern - a tightrope walk . Verlag hier + now, Zurich 2003. ISBN 3-906419-67-3
  • Thomas Bitterli-Waldvogel: Swiss Castle Guide . Reinhardt Verlag, Basel / Berlin 1995. ISBN 3-7245-0865-4
  • Werner Meyer and Laslo Irmes (photos): Castles of Switzerland, Volume 5: Cantons of Zurich and Schaffhausen . Silva-Verlag, Zurich 1982.
  • Heinrich Zeller-Werdmüller: Zurich castles . In: Communications from the Antiquarian Society in Zurich , 48./49. Vintage. Zurich 1894–1895.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e website dickemauern.de, History of Neu-Regensberg Castle ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (as of April 18, 2008)
  2. ↑ Burgenwelt: Regensberg city fortifications
  3. ↑ a b Source: Regensberg Castle Foundation, History (as of April 18, 2008)
  4. ^ Fortress Oberland: Barrier Regensberg ZH , accessed on April 30, 2020
  5. ↑ a b c d Source: website swisscastles.ch, Schlösser von Zürich, Regensberg (as of April 18, 2008)