Rapperswil Castle
| Schloss Rapperswil | |
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Rapperswil harbour, as seen from Seedamm, Fischmarktplatz to the right, Rapperswil castle and Stadtpfarrkirche (St. John's Church) in the background (September 2014)
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Location within Canton of St. Gallen
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| General information | |
| Classification | Historic monument |
| Town or city | Rapperswil |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Coordinates | 47°13′38″N 8°48′56″E / 47.227337°N 8.815509°E |
| Construction started | ~ 1220 respectively 1352 |
| Completed | ~ 1229 respectively 1354 |
Rapperswil Castle (Swiss German: Schloss Rapperswil) is a castle, built in the early 13th century AD by the House of Rapperswil in the former independent city of Rapperswil.
It is located on the eastern Zürichsee respectively western Obersee lakeshore in Rapperswil, a locality of the municipality Rapperswil-Jona in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Since 1870, the castle has been home to the Polish National Museum established by Polish émigrés, including the castle's lessee and restorer, Count Wladyslaw Broel-Plater. Schloss Rapperswil and the museum are listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance as Class A objects of national importance.
The medieval Altstadt of the city of Rapperswil is dominated by the castle perched atop a longish rocky hill on the peninsula called Lindenhof hill on its western side respectively Herrenberg on its eastern side where the castle was built. It is surrounded on three sides by the Lake Zürich and by those upper section on the northwestern Seedamm area. Thus, the castle was well protected, dominating the old town of Rapperswil, and controlling the water way between Walensee and Lake Zürich on its most narrow part, as well as the medieval Gotthard Pass route between Lombardy and Zürich, and the Jakobsweg (Way of St. James) to the Einsiedeln Abbey.
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Wikipedia