Thorberg Castle

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Thorberg Castle, etching, 18th century
Thorberg correctional facility today

The Thorberg Castle is a former Carthusian monastery and today's prison in the town of Krauchthal , canton Bern .

history

From the castle of the Lords of Thorberg, first mentioned in a document in 1175, only a remnant of the tower foundation remains. The line died out with the last knight Peter von Thorberg . He bequeathed his many estates to the Carthusian Order in 1397 .

Until the introduction of the Reformation in 1528, monks and lay brothers lived on the Thorberg, after which the entire monastery property passed to Bern .

When the Charterhouse was abolished in 1528, most of the 17 priests went to the Ittingen Charterhouse in Thurgau . Among them was Father Melchior Mörlin, whose list of 33 books has come down that he took to Ittingen in 1528; 6 of these books can still be found in the Thurgau cantonal library today. Four other manuscript volumes from the Thorberg Charterhouse have been preserved in the Bern Citizens' Library , and one more manuscript each is in the Grenoble and Vesoul city ​​libraries . The Solothurn Central Library has seven incunabula and ten post incunabula from the prior ownership of the Thorberg Charterhouse, most of which are bound in characteristic blind-embossed leather covers.

The construction of the baroque castle goes back to the time of the governors . The income of the Thorberg bailiwick was administered by a bailiff from the Bernese patriciate . Until 1798, various welfare institutions, a prison and a hospital were also housed here.

In 1805, what was then the beneficiary's house, which had previously been used for poor relief, was used for the first time as a compulsory education institution, model school and "auxiliary mental institution". In addition, in 1807 there was a so-called abstinence center for those who “did not actually deserve a prison sentence ”. On November 1, 1849, a forced labor facility replaced the welfare institutions. After the Waldau psychiatric clinic near Bern was opened in 1855, the “auxiliary insane asylum”, when the sculptor Joseph Maria Christen died in 1838 , was closed. In 1893 a newly built cell building was inaugurated as a prison; Further modifications followed in the course of the 20th century, most recently in 1998.

From the Carthusian monastery, the women's inn and the chapel , which was built between 1510 and 1515, are still preserved, the frescoes of which depict the adoration of the baby Jesus by the three wise men and the shepherds. A Man of Sorrows created by Erhart Küng , foreman at Bern Minster , from the former monastery property is now kept in the Bern Historical Museum .

literature

  • Armand Baeriswyl: castle, charterhouse, penitentiary. The archaeological rescue excavations on the Thorberg. In: Middle Ages. Journal of the Swiss Castle Association. Vol. 1, No. 4, 1996, ISSN  1420-6994 , pp. 70-76, doi : 10.5169 / seals-164552 .
  • Bernhard Schmid: The Torberg Charterhouse. Introduction and explanation of an unknown floor plan from 1672. In: Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde. Vol. 6 (1944), pp. 81-111, doi: 10.5169 / seals-240384 .
  • Jürg Ganz: Bern , in: Monasticon Cartusiense , ed. by Gerhard Schlegel, James Hogg, Volume 2, Salzburg 2004, 611–613.

See also

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Urs Leu: European incunable printing and Thurgau reading culture. In: Marianne Luginbühl, Heinz Bothien: Masterpieces of early book printing: the incunable treasures of the Thurgau canton library from the monasteries of Ittingen, Fischingen and Kreuzlingen. Verlag Huber, Frauenfeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-7193-1346-3 , especially pages XIII – XLVII, therein: books from the Bern Charterhouse Thorberg, with a list by Melchior Mörlin OCart, pp. XXXVII – XL and p. 645.
  2. ↑ Martin Germann: The Bongarsiana Codices department. In: The burger library. Bern 2002, ISBN 3-7272-1220-9 , pp. 92-120, especially pp. 111-112.
  3. ↑ swissbib: Search Results - Thorberg. Retrieved April 16, 2020 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 0 '9.4 "  N , 7 ° 33' 52.7"  E ; CH1903:  609583  /  205737 47.00262 7.56464