En un regard
Le château en bref
Blankenburg Castle (Schloss Blankenburg) stands in the locality of the same name, the main village of the municipality of Zweisimmen, in Upper Simmental (canton of Bern). First mentioned in 1329 as a noble residence, it already belonged in 1356 to the Fribourg family of Düdingen, which also held the neighbouring lordships of Mannenberg and Laubegg. After the Bernese conquest of 1386, during the Sempach War, Bern installed its bailiff (Kastlan) there: the castle became the seat of the Obersimmental bailiwick (châtellenie), a function it retained until 1798. It then housed the district of the Helvetic period and, from 1803, the bailiwick and district of Obersimmental, and for centuries remained an administrative and judicial centre of the valley. Its cells served as a prison until 1984; the politician Robert Grimm was notably detained there in 1919. Recognised as a monument of regional importance, the castle was offered for sale by the canton of Bern, which announced in December 2010 its transfer to a community of interests, the Interessengemeinschaft Schloss Blankenburg, for 1.25 million francs.