Arbon Castle is a former

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

and now the ''Historisches Museum Arbon'' (Arbon History Museum) located in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality ...

Arbon Arbon is a historic town and a municipality and district capital of the district of Arbon in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. Arbon is located on the southern shore of Lake Constance, on a railway line between Konstanz/ Romanshorn and Ror ...

of the

Canton of Thurgau Thurgau (; french: Thurgovie; it, Turgovia), anglicized as Thurgovia, more formally the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital is Frauenfeld. Thurgau is pa ...

in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

History

A castle in Arbon is first mentioned in 720 in a history of St. Gall Abbey. It stood on or near the site of the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

''Arbor Felix'' fortress from 250 AD. After the Romans retreated south of the Alps around 400, the old fortress was abandoned. Sometime later a Frankish castle was built in Arbon probably for the Frankish royal family. By around 700, Arbon and presumably the castle, were the property of the

diocese of Constance The Prince-Bishopric of Constance, (german: Hochstift Konstanz, Fürstbistum Konstanz, Bistum Konstanz) was a small ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire from the mid-12th century until its secularisation in 1802–1803. In his du ...

and an ecclesiastic overseer or bailiff ruled over Arbon. The oldest part of the current castle is a 13th-century, originally free standing, residential tower. The tower may have been built on the foundation of an earlier building. The lower walls are up to thick. Inside the castle there are two Romanesque fireplaces. In 1515-20 the Bishop

Hugo von Hohenlandenberg Hugo von Hohenlandenberg (c. 1457 in Schloss Hegi bei Winterthur /nowiki>Zurich">Zurich.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Zurich">/nowiki>Zurich/nowiki> – 7 January 1532 in Meersburg, Germany) was Bishop of Konstanz from 1496 to 1529, and again in 1530 ...

rebuilt the castle to its current appearance. The old tower was rebuilt into a U shape. The upper most story, the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...

s and the

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thu ...

are also from this reconstruction. The outer wall of the castle moved to stand exactly over the north-west corner of the Roman era fortress.Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte GSK
accessed 15 January 2013 In 1822 the Stoffel silk ribbon weaving company moved into the castle. They remained there until 1907. In 1911 the castle was bought by Adolph Saurer, the founder of

Adolph Saurer AG Adolph Saurer AG was a Swiss manufacturer of embroidery and textile machines, trucks and buses under the Saurer and Berna (beginning in 1929) brand names. Based in Arbon, Switzerland, the firm was active between 1903 and 1982. Their vehicles wer ...

. He built workshops around the castle building as he experimented with motors, trucks and machinery. In 1944 his son, Hippolyt Saurer sold the castle to the city for 150,000 Swiss francs.Historisches Museum - Welcome
accessed 15 January 2013 The city renovated and expanded the castle and in 1967 opened the ''Historisches Museum Arbon'' (Arbon History Museum).

References

External links

Historisches Museum Arbon website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arbon Castle Cultural property of national significance in Thurgau Castles in Thurgau Arbon

History

See also

References

External links