Thun Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Overlooking the town of Thun from the Schlossberg hill, the castle is one of the great landmarks of the Bernese Oberland, with its massive keep flanked by four corner turrets. The keep was built around 1180–1190 by Duke Berthold V of Zähringen on a site already occupied in the 12th century by a residence and an enclosure, as excavations carried out in 2013 confirmed. More than a place of residence, it asserted the power of the Zähringen over the territory and the trade routes. Inside, the great Knights' Hall, 14 metres high, is among the best-preserved medieval state rooms in Europe. Thun became Bernese in 1384: Bernese bailiffs and then governors resided there for centuries, and a prison has occupied the roof of the keep since the 17th century. A "New Castle" was erected in 1429–1430 in the south-western part of the complex. The historical museum moved into the keep in 1888; the town acquired the castle in 2006, and a conference centre, a hotel and a restaurant opened in 2014.