Toffen Castle
| Toffen Castle | |
|---|---|
| Schloss Toffen | |
| Toffen | |
Toffen Castle
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 Toffen Castle
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| Coordinates | 46°51′48″N 7°29′21″E / 46.863447°N 7.489037°ECoordinates: 46°51′48″N 7°29′21″E / 46.863447°N 7.489037°E |
| Type | Castle |
| Site information | |
| Owner | von May-von Werdt family |
| Open to the public |
no |
| Site history | |
| Built | before 1306 |
| Built by | Johann von Bremgarten |
| Materials | Stone |
Toffen Castle (German: Schloss Toffen) is a Baroque country estate in Toffen, Canton of Bern, Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
The construction date of Toffen Castle is unknown. It first appears in a record on 19 May 1306 when Johann von Bremgarten gave up his estates, which included Toffen and Bremgarten Castles, to his uncles Heinrich and Ulrich von Bremgarten. In 1323 Peter von Gysenstein, a patrician from Bern, acquired the castle and Zwing und Bann right over the villagers of Toffen. The castle was inherited, through his daughter, by Johann Senn von Münsingen. In 1352 Ulrich "Keseli" von Toffen, a local noble, bought part of the estate. Three years later, he bought the remainder. His family held the castle and surrounding estates for almost one hundred years.
After passing through several additional owners, in 1507 Bartholomew May (1446-1531) bought the estate. According to tradition, after the Battle of Novara, Bartholomew May brought the first bears to Bern's Bärengraben or Bear Pit. Bartholomew expanded and renovated the old castle into a late Gothic country manor house. The castle stayed in the von May family until 1610 when it was sold to Loys or Elogius Knobloch.
Knobloch brought in carpenters and artists from the Alsace region to renovate the castle interior. The Bretzelistube still contains the rich Renaissance style carvings as well as later paintings by the Bernese artist Joseph Werner. Loys Knobloch's daughter from his first marriage, Anna, married Abraham von Werdt in 1616. After the death of her father in 1642, von Werdt became the Freiherr over Toffen. The Toffen branch of the von Werdt family owned the castle for nine generations and today it is owned by Mrs. von May-von Werdt, who combines two family lines with extensive history at Toffen Castle.
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