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Neu-Thierstein Castle was founded in 1100 and a new building was built around 1294/95. The castle was apparently built by the Saugern-Pfeffingen family as a seat for a Kastvogtei (or a vogt with authority over a religious structure) who ruled over Beinwil Abbey. The first mention of the castle comes from 1321 when it was called Bello. As heirs of the Saugern-Pfeffingen family, in the late 12th Century, the count of Thierstein took over the castle and the Kastvogtei post. By 1400 it was known as Thierstein Castle. The castle was occupied by the Canton of Solothurn in 1445, 1467 and 1499. After the extinction of the counts of Thierstein in 1522, Solothurn acquired the castle and made it the administrative center of the secular bailiwick of Thierstein. In 1798 the castle was sold for demolition. However, in the 19th Century, the destruction of the castle are stopped by private individuals who wanted to repair the ruins. The ruins were surveyed and archeologically investigated in 1985.
The castle ruins are on a small rocky outcrop above the municipality of Büsserach. The ruin consists of a residential tower with ancillary buildings. Traces of a bailey and the old gate house on the south side can still be seen.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.