| Schlossberg Castle | |
|---|---|
Schlossberg | |
| La Neuveville | |
 Schlossberg Castle | |
  Schlossberg Castle | |
| Coordinates | 47°03′59″N7°05′03″E / 47.06630°N 7.08425°E Coordinates: 47°03′59″N7°05′03″E / 47.06630°N 7.08425°E |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Privately owned |
| Open to the public | Available to rent |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1283-88 |
| Built by | Prince-Bishop Henry von Isny |
Schlossberg Castle (German : Schlossberg) is a castle in the municipality of La Neuveville of the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
In 999 the Abbot of Moutier-Grandval Abbey gave his extensive landholdings around Lake Biel, including where La Neuveville would be founded, to the Prince-Bishop of Basel. At that time the region was known as Nugerol and over the next centuries the Bishop of Basel and the Counts of Neuchâtel often quarreled over the land. In 1283 the Prince-Bishop Henry von Isny began to have Schlossberg Castle built on the slopes of the Jura Mountains. Construction finished up in 1288 under the next Prince-Bishop, Peter Reich von Reichenstein. [1] The castle was intended to help defend his claim to the land. To further solidify his claims, around 1310, the next Prince-Bishop, Gérard de Vuippens, founded the town of La Neuveville. The town and castle pushed the borders of the County of Neuchâtel to the eastern side of the Ruz de Vaux stream. [2]
The Bishops appointed castellans who were required to live in the castle and to defend it if attacked. After the town of La Neuveville was established, the castellan of the castle also governed the town. [1]
In 1342, the Prince-Bishops signed a treaty with the Counts of Neuchâtel which established the border between their lands. With the treaty, Schlossberg lost much of its original strategic importance. In 1367 fighting broke out between the Prince-Bishop Johann von Vienne and the city of Bern. The Prince-Bishop fled to Schlossberg Castle ahead of a Bernese army. Bern then besieged the town of La Neuveville and the castle. The citizens of La Neuveville rallied around the Prince-Bishop and drove the Bernese army away. In response, the Prince-Bishop granted the town additional rights and privileges in 1368. [2]
Starting in 1532, the castellan began living in the town and only visited the castle. About two decades later, in 1556, the castellan completely moved into town. The castle began to slowly fall into disrepair. In 1799, after the 1798 French invasion, the castle was sold by the French government to a private owner. It was repaired in 1884 by Charles-Louis Schnider-Gibollet and again in 1930-32 by Louis-Philippe Imer. Following the renovation, in 1933, Louis-Philippe gave the castle to the community of La Neuveville and the Canton of Bern. Today a foundation established by the community maintains the castle and rents portions out. [1] [3]
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La Neuveville is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland, located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura.
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The early modern history of the Old Swiss Confederacy and its constituent Thirteen Cantons encompasses the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) until the French invasion of 1798.
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The Toggenburg War, also known as the Second War of Villmergen or the Swiss Civil War of 1712, was a Swiss civil war during the Old Swiss Confederacy, that took place from 12 April until 11 August 1712. On the one hand there were the Catholic "inner cantons" and the Imperial Abbey of Saint Gall, on the other the Protestant cantons of Bern and Zürich as well as the abbatial subjects of Toggenburg. The conflict was simultaneously a religious war, a war for the hegemony within the Confederacy and an uprising of subjects. The war ended in a Protestant victory and toppled the balance of political power within the Confederacy.
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