Eglisau Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Eglisau Castle stood on the left bank of the Rhine, at a strategic crossing on the road between Zurich and Schaffhausen, above the small town of the same name (Zurich). Its history goes back to a keep attributed to the Counts of Kyburg-Dillingen in the second half of the 11th century, supplemented in 1268 by a Ritterhaus belonging to the barons of Tengen, and then, at the end of the Middle Ages, by a Gothic Neues Schloss with a cruciform plan. Sold to Zurich in 1463 and resold the same day to Baron Bernhard Gradner, it was taken back by Zurich in 1496 and became the seat of its bailiffs; between 1497 and 1798, fifty-seven bailiffs succeeded one another there, the last, Salomon Landolt, later inspiring Gottfried Keller's novella "Der Landvogt von Greifensee" ("The Bailiff of Greifensee"). Most of the complex was demolished in the 19th century: the Neues Schloss in 1810–1811, and the keep and the Ritterhaus in 1841–1842. What remains are the castle barn, built in 1630 and later converted into housing, the moat with its stone arch bridge, and the castle fountain. These remains are protected as a group together with the old town of Eglisau.