Castell Castle is a

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 ...

in the

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

Tägerwilen Tägerwilen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. Geography Tägerwilen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 47.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 37.4% is forested. Of the re ...

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 part ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. 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 (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three Body of water, 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, ca ...

area.

History

Castell Castle, also known as Upper Castell (''Ober-Castell''), overlooks the village of

from a vantage point on the Thurgau

Seerücken The Seerücken is a hill range of the northern Swiss Plateau, located in the canton of Thurgau. On its north side it overlooks the Untersee branch of Lake Constance. The summit area of the Seerücken consists of a 700-metre-high plateau, where ...

ridge. It dates back to the time of the

Junker Junker ( da, Junker, german: Junker, nl, Jonkheer, en, Yunker, no, Junker, sv, Junker ka, იუნკერი (Iunkeri)) is a noble honorific, derived from Middle High German ''Juncherre'', meaning "young nobleman"Duden; Meaning of Junke ...

Konrad, ''Vogt'' (

advocatus During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...

) of Wartenfels, an inhabitant of

Konstanz Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...

, who in 1585 replaced an existing farmhouse with a manor house in

late Renaissance Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

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 municipality in the district of Zurzach in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. History Klingnau is first mentioned in 1239 as ''Chlingenowe''. Ulrich of Klingen acquired land from the monastery of St. Blaise in 1239 to found the ...

and

Arbon , neighboring_municipalities= Egnach, Roggwil TG, Berg SG, Steinach, Horn , twintowns = Langenargen (Germany), Binn (Switzerland) Arbon is a historic town and a municipality and district capital of the district of Arbon in the canton ...

. In 1661 the estate changed hands again, this time passing to the brothers Zollikofer von Altenklingen of

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

, 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 architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

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 (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) 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 fo ...

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ar, الْحَمْرَاء, Al-Ḥamrāʾ, , ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of 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 The Society for Art History in Switzerland (german: Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte (GSK), french: Société d'histoire de l'art en Suisse (SHAS), it, Società di storia dell' arte in Svizzera (SSAS)) is a Swiss learned society d ...

(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