Wyher Castle

Wyher Castle
	Wyher Castle
Creation time :	First mentioned in 1304
Castle type :	Moated castle
Conservation status:	Receive
Place:	Ettiswil
Geographical location	47 ° 8 '31.3 " N , 8 ° 1' 25.6" O Coordinates: 47 ° 8 '31.3 " N , 8 ° 1' 25.6" E ; CH1903: six hundred forty-four thousand three hundred eighty-six / two hundred twenty-one thousand three hundred ninety-three
Height:	524 m above sea level M.

The Wyher Castle is a moated castle, the south of the village center of Ettiswil in Switzerland is. It was first mentioned in a document in 1304 and was owned by the Feer families and later the Pfyffers for a long time . After the fire of 1964, the canton of Lucerne acquired the castle, which extensively renovated the complex both inside and out between 1981 and 1996. The castle has been a listed building since 1963 .

history

First mentions

The origins of the palace buildings have not been explored. It is possible that a Celtic or Roman fortification was previously located on the marginal elevation near a natural pond at the entrance to the Rottal.

The permanent house "zem wiger" was first mentioned in 1304 as the seat of the barons of Wediswil. 1308 was the Luternauer, currently also Kastelen , inherited possessed. Wyher came in 1385 as a dowry from noblewoman Dorothea von Luternau to Albert Businger from Lucerne. In 1455 his grandson Hans Heinrich Businger sold the castle to Hans Bircher in Ettiswil, who in turn sold the "Haus zem Wyger" in 1480 to the Lucerne mayor Hans Feer (1418–1484).

Owned by the Feer family

Petermann Feer (1454–1519) took over the castle from his father, Hans Feer (1418–1484) in the early 1480s.

On July 22nd, 1499 Petermann Feer led the 800 man strong Lucerne Harst from eastern Switzerland to the battle of Dornach in order to help the Confederates to victory against the Swabian Confederation . However, the first slaughter celebrations are not recorded in Dornach, but at Wyher Castle. The moated castle represented the besieged castle, while in front of it the "hostile parties" gathered for the "battle", which finally culminated in a folk festival. Such slaughter celebrations took place every 10 or 20 years until shortly before the end of the 19th century.

Petermann Feer built the main building in 1510 with a floor space of 13 by 14 meters, probably using existing older parts. In the middle of the 16th century, his descendants added the 34-meter-long Klösterli with two closing round towers. This economic tract with an arbor facing the main building also forms the northwestern part of the surrounding wall. The drawbridge was moved from the northeast to the southeast, and the castle was now accessed from the west.

Petermann Feer's direct successor was his son Beat (1510–1552) from his second marriage. He adopted the name "Feer von Wyher". Knight Beat Jakob Feer (1540–1598) was the last owner of the Feer family. His five children all died early and so on July 28, 1588, he sold the palace and court to his brother-in-law, the knight Ludwig Pfyffer of Lucerne, for 18,000 guilders .

Owned by the Pfyffer family

Pfyffer had the state room built on the first floor of the manor house. It closed off the area between the Klösterli and the manor house from the outside and added to the surrounding wall and the two round towers on the southeast side. A three-bay stone bridge now led to the castle from the west. In 1592 Pfyffer built the palace chapel, consecrated to St. Ludwig, on a small hill west of the palace. 47.141472222222 8.02175

Ludwig Pfyffer was succeeded as lord of the castle by his son Jost Ludwig Pfyffer von Altishofen and Mr. zu Wyher. His son Ludwig had no male descendants and their daughter Barbara became the castle owner. She married Jost Pfyffer von Altishofen (1604–1660); the two became first parents of the Pfyffer von Wyher. Franz Ludwig Pfyffer zu Wyher (1633–1689), Ludwig Christoph Pfyffer von Wyher (1658–1716), Jost Franz Pfyffer (1683–1727) and Franz Ludwig Pfyffer zu Wyher followed as owners.

The latter married the enterprising Anna d'Hemel (1722–1800) in 1741, who one day had the roofs of the manor house and the turrets remodeled to a broad, expansive shape in her husband's absence. She changed the room layout in the manor house by means of wall openings and furnished the second floor in the Louis XVI style . The stone bridge was covered with earth to get a wider driveway. A deep trench was dug around the castle and a wide embankment planted with chestnut trees was raised. Wyher kept this shape until around 1850.

After the death of Franz Ludwig Pfyffer, his daughters Maria Anna and Maria Hyazintha inherited the castle. Maria Hyazintha Pfyffer von Wyher married Jost Bernhard Pfyffer von Altishofen (1748–1836), with which the castle fell back to the main Pfyffer tribe. Their children and heirs sold Wyher Castle and Hof on January 16, 1837 to the brothers Hieronimus, Alois, Johann and Andreas Hüsler von Hasenhusen in Gunzwil.

Owned by the Hüsler family, important during the Second World War, maintenance of the castle

The farmer Hüsler finally brought the estate through two world wars. The family used the castle's premises for good causes: rooms were rented out to poor families and refugees were given protection during World War II. The drainage of the moats around 1850 destabilized the walls, whereupon the curtain wall in the direction of Grosswangen, including the two corner towers, had to be removed. In 1930, the Hüslers renewed the connecting piece between the manor house and Klösterli. After a heavy hailstorm in 1950, the Klösterli was given a more solid roof structure in front of the new ceiling.

Fire and renovation

In 1961 the castle was advertised for sale. Grand Councilor Fritz Steiner took the initiative to keep the castle open to the public. In the Grand Council he pointed out possible uses for the canton, which was currently looking for a location for the historical museum. Purchase negotiations between the canton and the Hüsler-Boog family began. In July 1963 the castle was listed as a historical monument.

On the night of July 25th to 26th, 1963, lightning caused a fire in the roof of the main house, which spread to the upper rooms. The ground floor, the connecting wing and the Klösterli were saved by the fire brigade.

In September 1963, a sales law contract was concluded between the canton of Lucerne and the Hüsler community of heirs. At the end of September, an emergency roof paid for by the fire insurance was built. Volunteers cleared away the rubble and saved valuable equipment such as carvings, panels, ceilings and beams.

An initiative committee founded in 1964 aimed to restore the exterior of the palace complex.

On September 20, 1965, Parliament granted a loan of 122,000 francs for the acquisition of the castle including the surrounding area in the area of 1 ha 44 to 28 m² with the purpose of preserving the cultural monument and making it accessible to the public. In 1970 the Grand Council approved the creation of a 100,000 francs Schloss Wyher Foundation, which is to be responsible for the establishment, operation and maintenance of the castle. The Board of Trustees was only set up in 1972.

The initiative committee saved and in the meantime acquired parts of the interior fittings previously sold, for example floors, panels , ceilings, grilles, stoves, columns or sandstone frames.

Various projects for the later use of the castle (e.g. congress center, training center, restaurant, accommodation for school camps) did not make the breakthrough. No patron could be found either.

An unexpected purchase offer from Cäcilie Christine Caroline Immaculatae Michaela Thaddäa, Former Countess zu Salm-Reifferscheidt and Udo Proksch would have solved the financial questions: The building lease agreement of November 2, 1973, which had yet to be approved by the government, would have the reconstruction at the expense of the builders and use for 100 years intended. However, only individual rooms would have been available for public exhibitions for four weeks per year. This severe restriction of use, which did not correspond to the purpose of the foundation, as well as the seemingly untrustworthy buyers led to great indignation in the public and later to the suspension of the building rights contract.

From 1976 the outer walls of the castle were renovated and the manor house was given a roof. The second stage from 1981 to 1983 was mainly dedicated to the outbuildings: the Klösterli was prepared for exhibitions, the surrounding wall with the four turrets was restored.

It is not least thanks to the patrons' association founded in the 1980s that the restoration was subsequently faster. For example, he raised funds for the renovation of the Feer-Saal, for buying back the Pfyfferstube or installing a cafeteria on the ground floor. The patrons' association has been the leaseholder of the palace complex and is therefore responsible for its operation.

In the construction phase from 1992 to 1996, it was the turn of the rooms suitable for events, electrical and sanitary systems as well as the heating. A drawbridge was built in 1994 and the moat was filled again in 1995. On October 13, 1996, the completion of the overall renovation was celebrated with a castle festival.

Current usage

Various rooms in the castle can be rented, which is also used for exhibitions, weddings and other occasions. Castle tours are possible by prior arrangement.

Josef Zihlmann Collection

Since 1996, the castle has housed the folklore collection “Signs of religious folk art” in the attic of the Klösterli. It includes all sorts of things that simple believing Christians in the 19th and 20th centuries used for their private devotions, for example, images of saints, pilgrimage souvenirs, rosaries, figures of saints, broom offerings, confirmation souvenirs or baptism slips . The pieces were written by folklorist, dialect researcher and writer Dr. hc Josef Zihlmann (1914–1990). The exhibition is open once a month.

literature

Bruno Bieri, Alois Häfliger: Wyher Castle. Board of Trustees Schloss Wyher, Willisau 2001, ISBN 3-909221-47-5 .

Web links

Wyher Castle website
Castle world: Wyher Castle
Waltraud Hörsch: Ettiswil. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .