Neu-Signau Castle

Neu-Signau
	Burg Neu-Signau
	Bowil
	Neu-Signau
Coordinates	46°54′34″N7°42′34″E / 46.9094°N 7.7095°E Coordinates: 46°54′34″N7°42′34″E / 46.9094°N 7.7095°E
Type	hill castle, spur castle
Code	CH-BE
Site information
Condition	burgstall (no above-ground ruins)
Site history
Built	14th Century
Garrison information
Occupants	Freiherren von Signau

Last updated April 27, 2019

Neu-Signau Castle (German : Burg Neu-Signau) is a ruined castle in the municipality of Bowil in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.

Bowil is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

The canton of Bern or Berne is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. Located in west-central Switzerland, it borders the canton of Jura and the canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the canton of Neuchâtel, the canton of Fribourg and canton of Vaud. To the south lies the canton of Valais. East of the canton of Bern lie the cantons of Uri, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Lucerne and Aargau.

History

The castle was built to replace Alt-Signau Castle as the residence of the Barons of Signau. It was intended to protect and control the road between the Emmental and Aare river valley. In 1826 the castle was demolished.

Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary. The female equivalent is baroness.

The Emmental is a valley in west central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the rivers Emme and Ilfis. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming. The principal settlements are the town of Burgdorf and the village of Langnau.

The Aare or Aar is a tributary of the High Rhine and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland.

Location and description

The castle is situated on a conglomerate spur above Bowil village. On an opposite hill, across the valley are the ruins of Alt-Signau Castle. Today, only a few traces of the castle can be seen.

Conglomerate is a coarse-grained clastic sedimentary rock that is composed of a substantial fraction of rounded to subangular gravel-size clasts, e.g., granules, pebbles, cobbles, and boulders, larger than 2 mm (0.079 in) in diameter. Conglomerates form by the consolidation and lithification of gravel. Conglomerates typically contain finer grained sediment, e.g., either sand, silt, clay or combination of them, called matrix by geologists, filling their interstices and are often cemented by calcium carbonate, iron oxide, silica, or hardened clay.

Alt-Signau Castle is a ruined castle in the municipality of Bowil in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

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References

Burgenkarte der Schweiz - West: ISBN 978-3-302-09801-2, Bundesamt für Landestopografie swisstopo, 2007
Heinrich Türler (1905). Das Schloss Signau. Neues Berner Taschenbuch. 10. Bern: Freunde vaterländischer Geschichte. pp. 243–261.

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

External links

Anne-Marie Dubler:Bowil in German , French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland .
History of Signau from signau.ch

<i>Historical Dictionary of Switzerland</i> encyclopedia on the history of Switzerland

The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland is an encyclopedia on the history of Switzerland that aims to take into account the results of modern historical research in a manner accessible to a broader audience.

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