Wildenstein Castle (Veltheim)

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Wildenstein Castle
Veltheim Wildenstein DJI 0926.jpg
Creation time : around 1300
Conservation status: is being renovated
Standing position : Noble
Place: Veltheim
Geographical location 47 ° 25 '43.6 "  N , 8 ° 9' 23.5"  O Coordinates: 47 ° 25 '43.6 "  N , 8 ° 9' 23.5"  E ; CH1903:  654164  /  253355
Wildenstein Castle (Canton Aargau)
Wildenstein Castle

Wildenstein is a castle in the municipality of Veltheim in the Swiss canton of Aargau . It is located around 1.5 kilometers south of the village on a rocky outcrop at the foot of the Veltheimerberg, which belongs to the Chain Jura, not far from the western bank of the Aare .

history

The beginnings of Wildenstein Castle are unknown. It is mentioned for the first time in 1301 as the Allod der Schenken von Kasteln, before 1307 it came to the Lords of Reinach . The two defense towers were built around 1350 and around 1400 the palace was built or expanded. The system has the shape of an irregular square. The two keep, the curtain wall, the hall and the utility building are grouped around the inner courtyard. In 1415 Henmann von Reinach received Wildenstein from the city ​​of Bern as a fiefdom , in 1465 Heinrich Hasfurter from Lucerne became lord of Wildenstein and in 1487, for a short time, Rudolf von Luternau. In 1491 the brothers Hans Albrecht and Hermann von Mülinen bought Wildenstein Castle and Court. Hans Thüring Effinger became Lord of Wildenstein through his marriage to Ursula von Mülinen. In 1720 Franz Friedrich Effinger sold Wildenstein to the wealthy merchant David Sprüngli (1697–1744), son-in-law of the Bernese municipal works master Samuel Jenner . At the request of Schenkenberger Obervogt Johann Rudolf von Luternau, Sprüngli had to forcibly sell Wildenstein to Bern so that Obervogt von Schenkenberg could move into Wildenstein instead of the dilapidated Schenkenberg Castle . Up to 1798, 15 senior bailiffs resided at Wildenstein Castle.

After the fall of the Republic of Bern, Wildenstein passed to the newly created canton of Aargau , which sold the castle to private customers in 1804. In 1816 the French lieutenant general Jean Rapp bought the castle in order to retire there. In 1819 the property was auctioned, the castle building and the associated land parcels separated from each other. The castle went to advocate Amsler, Ludwig Albrecht Effinger bought the Wildensteiner Schachen. Niklaus Friedrich von Mülinen was able to acquire the remaining parcels in 1831. Mülinen's brother-in-law Rudolf Emanuel Effinger administered this land and for this purpose lived in the tenant house in Wildenstein. The Zurich painter Carl Friedrich Irminger (1813–1863) bought the castle in 1840 and sold it on to Rudolf Emanuel Effinger that same year. From 1894 Pauline von Sinner - von Effinger (1836–1906) owned the castle. She bequeathed Wildenstein Castle as a foundation for charitable purposes, administered by her sister Julie von Effinger. Julie von Effinger soon passed the administration of the foundation on to relatives, from 1908 Anna von May (1876–1925) owned the castle and in 1927 the pastor Adolf Frey, married to Sophie von Wattenwyl , a great niece of Pauline von Sinner, became new Owner. Frey was head of the Diakonissenhaus Bern and from 1928 built an old people's home in the Deaconess House . This existed until 1972. From 1976 Wildenstein belonged to the Gautschi-Tron Foundation, which went bankrupt in 2009.

In 2010, Wildenstein Castle was auctioned off by bankruptcy authorities. Samuel Wehrli from Suhr, the new owner, planned to make the castle accessible to the public as a museum after restoration. In March 2014, Samuel Wehrli founded the Wildenstein Castle Foundation, which should ensure the preservation, maintenance and operation of the future publicly accessible castle complex. At the municipal assembly on June 9, 2017 in Veltheim, a zoning plan change drawn up by the municipal council was rejected. The Schloss Wildenstein property is located in the agricultural zone, which does not permit museum operations. The future of Wildenstein Castle is thus once again uncertain.

Building history

Emanuel Büchel, Wildenstein (1763).
Johann Ludwig Nöthiger , Wildenstein (around 1745)

Wildenstein Castle was expanded by von Rinach in the 14th century to include the two towers and the surrounding wall. Between 1465 and 1483, the building was expanded by the then owner, the Lucerne mayor Heinrich Hasfurter. Hans Thüring Effinger (1619–1667), who had become master of Wildenstein through his marriage to Johanna Margharetha von Mülinen, gave the residential building from 1645 its present form. Franz Christoph Effinger , married to Juliana Rosina von Erlach , had the northern castle wall and the garden furnished with baroque elements in 1695 and 1698. The Bernese foreman Niklaus Schiltknecht renovated four rooms in 1732, and in 1739 new windows were made in the Schiltensaal (south-east corner) and in the audience room. The audience room also received new paneling and a large oven. In 1756 Emanuel Zehender repaired dilapidated parts of the castle and built a new cellar under the governor. Further reparations were made in 1769 and 1785. The feudal house was repaired in 1756, an extension and a staircase were added in 1783 by Carl Ahasver von Sinner . Rudolf Emanuel Effinger had the building finished in 1840. During the time of the deaconess house, numerous reversible interventions took place. Since 1972, Wildenstein has faced a changeful fate. The castle has been extensively and professionally restored since 2012.

literature

Portal to the garden (1696)
  • Johann Jakob Huber: The Wildenstein Castle in Aargau. Messages from the history of this castle , Brugg 1894.
  • 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
  • Hans Lehmann : Wildegg Castle and its residents , Aarau 1922.
  • Johann Rudolf von Luternau : Necessary and unpredictable report on the prevailing question, whether it would be more useful and useful for the high class to rebuild the dilapidated castle on Schenckenberg. Or to pull the […] Castle […] Wildenstein to yourself? , [1720].
  • Walter Merz: The medieval castles and defensive structures of the canton Argau 2-3, 1906-29.
  • Walter Merz (Ed.): The documents from the Wildegg Castle Archives , Aarau 1931.
  • Felix Müller: Wildenstein. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Michael Stettler , Emil Maurer : The art monuments of the canton of Aargau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History . Volume II, Lenzburg and Brugg districts. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1953, p. 439-447 .
  • Karl Zickendraht: How Wildenstein became the official seat of Bern . In: Argovia 39 (1922), pp. I-IX. doi : 10.5169 / seals-43845

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bern Burger Library, Mss.hhIII.27 (17)
  2. ↑ Lehmann 1922, p. 372.
  3. ↑ Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz, Vol. 7, p. 536; Lehmann 1922, p. 415.
  4. ^ Daughter of Rudolf August Franz von May, a cousin of Pauline von Sinner.
  5. ↑ http://www.zefix.ch
  6. ↑ 2.5 million francs for a lock. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 14, 2010, accessed on September 14, 2010 .
  7. ↑ Here the new lord of the castle, Samuel Wehrli, shows his property. Aargauer Zeitung , September 17, 2010, accessed January 30, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Entry in SHAB (accessed on March 27, 2014).
  9. ↑ Gmeind does not give the green light for the special zone: Wildenstein Castle needs a new solution. Aargauer Zeitung , June 9, 2017, accessed on June 11, 2017 .
  10. ^ Alliance coat of arms Effinger – von Erlach above the main portal.
  11. ↑ Kdm AG II, p. 440.
  12. ↑ Kdm AG II, p. 440.