Switzerland · Still standing
Thun Castle
Thun Castle is a medieval castle on a hill in the city of Thun in the Swiss canton of Bern. Built at the end of the 12th century, its large white keep with tall Knights' Hall and later Gothic residential wing now houses the Thun Castle museum and is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Its prime
1436
Today
Still standing
Ranked among Europe’s castles
As it stood in 1436
What Thun Castle looked like in its prime.
A tall, plastered white cylindrical keep dominates the silhouette, flanked by slender round turrets with steep conical red clay-tile roofs; a large, steep pyramidal main roof with small dormer openings and long flagpoles rises from the central mass. Lower, interconnected steep red-tiled roofs form an extended administrative/residential wing at the keep's base. Narrow arched slit windows perforate the white masonry; the castle sits on a wooded hill above houses and trees, visible against a clear blue sky.
Its story
The story of Thun Castle.
Berthold V's Donjon, 1180-1218
A small fort and a church stood on the top of the castle hill in the early Middle Ages. The castle above Thun was built between 1180 and 1190 by Duke Berthold V of Zähringen, who raised the keep that still stands as far as the level of the Knights' Hall. That hall, 14 metres tall, was built as the centrepiece of a monument to Zähringen power; the family never lived in the castle, preferring Burgdorf. The courtyard well is 31.6 metres deep.
In 1218 the castle passed by inheritance to the counts of Kyburg, who added the upper storey above the Zähringen work.
Eberhard II Murders His Brother, 1322
A quarrel over who should rule the southern Kyburg lands ended in 1322 with Eberhard II von Kyburg murdering his brother Hartmann II in the castle. To protect his newly acquired lands from the Habsburgs, Eberhard II then sold them to Bern and was promptly given them back as a fief.
The Burgdorferkrieg and the Sale to Bern, 1382-1384
The Kyburgs held the region for nearly two centuries, until a failed raid by Rudolf II on Solothurn in 1382 began the war known as the Burgdorferkrieg, or Kyburgerkrieg. After several decisive Bernese victories the Kyburgs were forced into an unfavourable peace, and in 1384 Bern bought Thun and Burgdorf, the most important towns of the Kyburg lands. The castle came under Bernese control and became the seat of their local administration, reckoned a Bernese seat of office from 1375 by some accounts and from the purchase of 1384 by others.
Bernese Bailiffs, Court and Prison, 1429-1888
The massive roof of 1430-36 dates from the Bernese period. There were few living quarters in the castle, and in 1429 an administrative and residential wing in late Gothic style was added beside the keep, on the walls of older buildings, and became known as the New Castle; it housed the offices and lodgings of the Bernese Schultheissen.
The castle was also the seat of the local court, and from at least the 17th century a prison sat under the roof of the donjon. A new prison was built in the castle grounds in 1886, and the museum opened in the castle two years later, in 1888. For a time the jailer doubled as the museum's ticket seller and guard.
The City Buys the Castle, 2006-2014
The city bought the castle from the canton of Bern in 2006, its council resolving on 21 September to take the castle and a large part of the Schlossberg with it. The regional court of the Bernese Oberland sat in the New Castle until the end of 2009.
The site reopened at the end of June 2014 after extensive restoration, with a hotel, restaurant and conference centre in the New Castle and a car park driven into the castle hill; the Knights' Hall in the tower can be hired for events, and the great hall is used for concerts and plays. The museum occupies the five floors of the tower, its displays following the region's development over some 4,000 years, and opens daily from February to October and on Sundays for the rest of the year. The castle is listed as a Swiss cultural property of national significance.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1436.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Thun Castle, including 3 interiors: knights' hall (rittersaal), tower museum, the tower's five floors, prison chamber beneath the donjon roof. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Thun Castle.
The families that held Thun Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Zähringen
Built 1180–1190 by Duke Berthold V of Zähringen, though the family preferred to live at Burgdorf Castle.
Kyburg
Inherited by the House of Kyburg in 1218, who built the upper levels; Bern bought Thun in 1384.
Nearby
