Worb 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 ...

Worb Worb is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Worb is first mentioned around 1130-46 as ''Worw''. The oldest traces of settlements in the area include scattered neolithic ...

of 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 ...

. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

History

The

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

de Worvo was first mentioned in 1127, a couple of years before the village appeared in the record. By the second half of the 13th century the Freiherr von Kien had inherited village, lands and Worb Castle. The family ruled over the Worb ''

Herrschaft The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...

'' until 1336 when they became citizens of

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

and the territory came under Bernese authority. Over the following centuries several Bernese noble families ruled over the land and divided and recombined the ''Herrschaft''. The core of Worb Castle was built before 1130. Initially it had a

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

, great hall and a knight's house. In 1469 and again in 1594 it was renovated and repaired. In 1643 a new residential wing was added to the castle. A new ornate manor house was built near the old castle in 1734 by the son of

Christoph von Graffenried Christoph von Graffenried, 1st Baron of Bernberg (15 November 1661 – 1743), from a Swiss patrician family, was the founder of New Bern, North Carolina, land speculator, and leader in the early Swiss and German colonization of America. Much of ...

, Franz Ludwig von Graffenried. This new estate was known as Neuworb but was also called the ''Neuschloss'' or New Castle. The two estates were acquired by the Goumoëns-Sinner family in 1846. In 1964 the Seelhofer family bought the old castle while the New Castle was bought in 1985 by the von Graffenried family.

References

Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern Castles in the Canton of Bern * {{Switzerland-castle-stub

History

See also

References