Hünenberg Castle, Hünenberg, Switzerland

Hünenberg Castle was built in the 12th century and mentioned first time in 1173. At the Battle of Sempach in 1386 Hünenberg fought on the side of Habsburg family and the castle was destroyed after the defeat. During the following three decades the Hünenberg family also lost their power and reputation. In 1416, Rudolf von Hünenberg sold the ruined castle and its rights to the Bütler brothers. The keep was still standing into the 19th century.

User Reviews

R. B. (10 months ago)
Sehr sauber. Eher klein.

Peter Moos (10 months ago)
Ein muss für jeden Hünenberger. Heinrich von Hünenberg hat damals die Morgartenschlacht entschieden

Marguerite Ladner (11 months ago)
Un peu difficile à trouver, il faut bien suivre les indications sur panneaux. On peut reconnaître les contours de ce lieu fait de grosses pierres, en forêt. Intéressant si on recherche l'histoire régionale.

esther felber (12 months ago)
Hier lohnt sich ein kurzer Abstecher. Nur schon der Weg zur Burg ist wirklich schön und auch nicht wirklich weit. Gratis parkplätze stehen zur Verfügung, ebenfalls hat es einen spielplatz für die kleinen

Alexander Friesen (3 years ago)
Nothing to see

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Frans.Sellies

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Kromeriz Castle and Gardens

Kroměříž stands on the site of an earlier ford across the River Morava. The gardens and castle of Kroměříž are an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a European Baroque princely residence and its gardens and described as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The first residence on the site was founded by bishop Stanislas Thurzo in 1497. The building was in a Late Gothic style, with a modicum of Renaissance detail. During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was sacked by the Swedish army (1643).

It was not until 1664 that a bishop from the powerful Liechtenstein family charged architect Filiberto Lucchese with renovating the palace in a Baroque style. The chief monument of Lucchese's work in Kroměříž is the Pleasure Garden in front of the castle. Upon Lucchese's death in 1666, Giovanni Pietro Tencalla completed his work on the formal garden and had the palace rebuilt in a style reminiscent of the Turinese school to which he belonged.

After the castle was gutted by a major fire in March 1752, Bishop Hamilton commissioned two leading imperial artists, Franz Anton Maulbertsch and Josef Stern, arrived at the residence in order to decorate the halls of the palace with their works. In addition to their paintings, the palace still houses an art collection, generally considered the second finest in the country, which includes Titian's last mythological painting, The Flaying of Marsyas. The largest part of the collection was acquired by Bishop Karel in Cologne in 1673. The palace also contains an outstanding musical archive and a library of 33,000 volumes.

UNESCO lists the palace and garden among the World Heritage Sites. As the nomination dossier explains, 'the castle is a good but not outstanding example of a type of aristocratic or princely residence that has survived widely in Europe. The Pleasure Garden, by contrast, is a very rare and largely intact example of a Baroque garden'. Apart from the formal parterres there is also a less formal nineteenth-century English garden, which sustained damage during floods in 1997.

Interiors of the palace were extensively used by Miloš Forman as a stand-in for Vienna's Hofburg Imperial Palace during filming of Amadeus (1984), based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who actually never visited Kroměříž. The main audience chamber was also used in the film Immortal Beloved (1994), in the piano concerto scene.

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