Burgdorf Castle

The Burgdorf Castle is a castle from the 11th century on the highest point of the town of Burgdorf in the canton of Bern, in Switzerland. As one of the largest castles of nobility Hohenstaufenring time it is with Thun Castle and a few other plants in Switzerland, the secular counterpart of the great Romanesque churches, and thus a monument of national importance.

Today, the castle houses in addition to managing the administrative district Burgdorf Castle Museum, the Helvetic Gold Museum and the Museum of Ethnology.

History

The unique topographical situation has already resulted in early times to fortifications and later to the word education. The high medieval fortress was first mentioned in documents in 1130. Together with the family possessions hochburgundischen the castle in the 11th century has come to the Count of Rheinfelden and in 1090 to the dukes of Zahringen.

Berchtold V of Zähringens major expansion of the castle in 1200 to the palatine -like residence wants to make the southern center of the planned landscaped astride the Rhine Zähringen territorial state from the lock. With the death of Berchtold 1218 the state structure breaks apart; South possesses the heritage of the Rhine reaches the Counts of Kyburg. Burgdorf Castle is the center of their western possessions; the decline of the counts in 1383 leads to the siege of Burgdorf by Bern and the Swiss - with the first use of artillery in Switzerland.

1384 bought Bern Burgdorf Palace and rule from the impoverished Kyburgs. The castle has 623 years, seat of the Bernese district administration, merely interrupted from 1798 to 1804, when Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi led his internationally renowned educational institute here. Until 1798 it was the seat of the Bernese bailiff, inter alia, by Friedrich Bondeli ( 1705-1761 ), the father of Julie Bondeli. Since 1885 it is the seat of the Castle Museum, with which the main rooms and towers are constantly accessible to the public.

As headquarters of the crucial for the establishment of the State of Bern Zähringen Duke family who immortalized himself in the Palace with its famous inscription, Burgdorf Castle played a central constitutive role in the formation of the State of Bern. From here, the city of Bern was founded.

Architectural and art history

Divided into main and bailey castle has retained all the essential parts of its main construction period. The rational created in 1200, scheduled distribution of the main volume has remained dominant and the combination of cubic structure in a dominant height situation is up to the present day effective. The outer ward consists of the gate tower, a ring wall with battlements and a 45 m deep Sodbrunnen. The main castle consists of a square keep, a strong residential and defense tower, a north and south wings, which are surrounded by massive walls ring with two half-shell towers on the north side.

Two detached high towers and a massive, flanked by digging, Wall and smaller towers fortified walls of the 13th century to protect the castle plateau to the north. To the south are the representative of major building of the four-storey hall and the hall, which contained a total of three large rooms, one of the smallest, the now called Knight's Hall, is obtained unspoilt. The volume of the largest room in the hall in the 16th century divided into two floors and several individual rooms (now the Court and governorship ). There were two castle chapels, of which the smaller is get together with Gothic frescoes. In the palace there is a Roman knight's hall and a chapel with frescoes in 1330, scenes from the life of John the Baptist and show parts of the passion narrative.

The keep and the palace from the second half of the 12th century are among the earliest brick buildings in Switzerland. The Zähringen main construction phase of the castle opened the post-Roman brick production in Switzerland. The quality of the original both inside and worked on exposed brick federation is amazing; the dominant red color of the main buildings to the outside a royal symbol. These gloss Bern followed up on, as in 1430 the palace was given a new roof and its huge roof surfaces with glazed tiles were geometric patterns. The conservation, featuring the Bernese building policy to Burgdorf and testimony is that looked Bern as the legal successor of the princely houses, has preserved this main monument of medieval secular architecture in Switzerland for centuries.