Hofwil is a village in the

canton of Bern The canton of Bern or Berne (german: Kanton Bern; rm, Chantun Berna; french: canton de Berne; it, Canton Berna) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. ...

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 ...

, part of the municipality of

Münchenbuchsee Münchenbuchsee is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is famous as the birthplace of the painter Paul Klee. On 1 January 2023 the former municipality of Diemerswil merged to f ...

. The village of Hofwil was originally part of the lands owned by the

Münchenbuchsee Commandery The Münchenbuchsee Commandery was a medieval commandery of the Knights Hospitaller in the Swiss municipality of Münchenbuchsee in the Canton of Bern. History During the 12th century, the area around Münchenbuchsee was part of the lands of th ...

, a medieval

commandery In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...

of the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...

in nearby Münchenbuchsee. After the commandery was suppressed during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, Hofwil was owned by a number of nobles. In 1719

Hieronymus von Erlach Hieronymus, in English pronounced or , is the Latin form of the Ancient Greek name (Hierṓnymos), meaning "with a sacred name". It corresponds to the English given name Jerome. Variants * Albanian: Jeronimi * Arabic: جيروم (Jerome) * Basq ...

combined the village with

Moosseedorf Moosseedorf is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The village is located south of Moossee, the lake that gives it its name. History Moosseedorf is first mentioned in 1242 as '' ...

. Hofwil Castle was built in 1784-86 by the architect Carl Ahasver von Sinner for Gabriel Albrecht von Erlach. A

peristyle In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=fou ...

was added to the neo-classical building in 1798. The Hofwil Institution was built by

Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg (27 June 1771 – 21 November 1844) was a Swiss educationalist and agronomist. Biography He was born at Bern. His father was of patrician family, and a man of importance in his canton, and his mother was a granddaug ...

, a Bernese patrician. He took over the estate of Hofwyl in 1799 from his father and transformed it into several schools to educate all levels of society. He established a school for the poor, a secondary school for local students and an institute for the sons of wealthy families throughout Europe.Hofwil Gymnasium website
accessed 4 February 2013 The institute, which was founded in 1808, gradually became the largest school and developed an international reputation. The Hofwil Institution building was built in 1817-21 as a center piece of Emanuel von Fellenberg's educational vision. The outbuildings were built in 1818, followed by a teacher's house in 1819 and another school building around 1820. After Fellenberg's death in 1844 the schools struggled and eventually every one closed. The Canton of Bern bought the building in 1884 to house the expansion of the teachers' college, which had been founded in 1833 in Münchenbuchsee. Over the following decades it became just a preparatory school which fed into the main teacher's college in Bern. However, in 1973 it once again became a full college. In 1997 it changed again, this time into a music institute for the 10th through 12th grade. The building also houses an optional boarding school for students. The swimming pool at Hofwil, the Hofwil Institution and Hofwil Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire area around Hofwil is part of the

Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage. Sites of national importance Types The types are based on t ...

. File:Badeweiher Hofwil Eingang.jpg, Hofwil Swimming Facility File:Hofwil Münchenbuchsee2.jpg, Hofwil Institution File:Schloss Hofwil Münchenbuchsee1.jpg, Hofwil Castle

References

External links

* Villages in the canton of Bern {{Berne-geo-stub