Castell Castle is a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

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' ...

of Tägerwilen of the Canton of Thurgau in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. East of the present-day castle can be found the ruins of the 12th-century Castell Castle, one of the largest defensive structures from the medieval period in the

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

area.

History

Castell Castle, also known as Upper Castell (''Ober-Castell''), overlooks the village of Tägerwilen from a vantage point on the Thurgau Seerücken ridge. It dates back to the time of the

Junker Junker (, , , , , , ka, იუნკერი, ) is a noble honorific, derived from Middle High German , meaning 'young nobleman'Duden; Meaning of Junker, in German/ref> or otherwise 'young lord' (derivation of and ). The term is traditionally ...

Konrad, ''Vogt'' (

advocatus An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...

) of Wartenfels, an inhabitant of

Konstanz Konstanz ( , , , ), traditionally known as Constance in English, is a college town, university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the Baden-Württemberg state of south Germany. The city ho ...

, who in 1585 replaced an existing farmhouse with a manor house in late Renaissance style; this still forms the heart of the castle complex today. Before 1635, the castle passed into the possession of Beat Jakob Segesser von Brunegg, the ''Obervogt'' of

Klingnau Klingnau is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Zurzach (district), Zurzach in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau in Switzerland. History Klingnau is first mentioned in 1239 as ''Chlingenowe''. Ulrich of K ...

and

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 ...

. In 1661 the estate changed hands again, this time passing to the brothers Zollikofer von Altenklingen of St. Gallen, who had the castle remodelled in 1725. In 1790 the castle came into the possession of Daniel von Scherer of St. Gallen. For four weeks in 1871 the castle was used to accommodate 506 members of Bourbaki's

Armée de l'Est The Armée de l'Est (''Army of the East''; German - Ostarmee; also Second Loire Army; nicknamed the 'Bourbaki army' after its first commander General Charles Denis Sauter Bourbaki) was a French army which took part in the Franco-Prussian War of ...

. A descendant of Daniel von Scherer, Baron Maximilian (Max) von Scherer-Scherburg (1848–1901), engaged the architect Emil Otto Tafel between 1878 and 1894 to redesign the castle in

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

style. Between 1892 und 1894 the building was also painted with frescoes by Carl von Häberlin, depicting various episodes from the castle's history. Of the castle's interior decoration, the replica "Moorish hall", styled after a hall in

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Muslim world, Islamic world. Additionally, the ...

, is worthy of mention. The von Stockar-Scherer-Castell family inherited the castle in 1901, and it still belongs to the fourth generation of this family at present. The castle's economic basis is provided by agriculture and forestry on its 160-hectare estate. Castell Castle is not publicly accessible, but can be clearly viewed at several angles from the nearby public road. The castle's pond, the woods around it, and the nearby ruins of the older (12th-century) Castell Castle are all accessible to the public.

Literature (in German)

* Society for Art History in Switzerland (ed.): ''Kunstführer durch die Schweiz.'' Vol. 1. Bern 2005, . * Harald Derschka: ''Die Ministerialen des Hochstiftes Konstanz'' (''Konstanzer Arbeitskreis für Mittelalterliche Geschichte: Vorträge und Forschungen''; special volume 45). Thorbecke, Stuttgart 1999, , pp. 125–139. * Michael Losse, Ilga Koch: ''Schlösser und Burgen am westlichen Bodensee.'' Wartberg Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2004, , p. 74. * Wolfgang Kramer, Franz Hofmann (eds.): ''Kunstschätze in Konstanz, Kreuzlingen und Umgebung.'' Verlag Michael Greuter, Hilzingen 2009, . p. 119. * Michael Weithmann: ''Burgen und Schlösser rund um den Bodensee.'' Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck 2008, .

References

{{Switzerland-castle-stub Cultural property of national significance in Thurgau Castles in Thurgau

History

See also

Literature (in German)

References