Scherenberg Ruin

En un regard

Le château en bref

The ruin of Scherenberg occupies a small sandstone knoll at the locality of Sodhubel, in the municipality of Safenwil (district of Zofingen, canton of Aargau), above the former road to Zofingen. Of this medieval castle only the castle mound and a well survive: the last masonry was dismantled in the 19th century, and the dressed stone was used to build in the village. Local historiography attributes its foundation to the barons of Belp, who held rights over Safenwil in the 13th century, and places it in the sources around 1200. The castle then passed to the lords of Ifenthal, ministerials of the counts of Froburg and Habsburg as well as of the Bishopric of Basel: together with the Alt Wartburg, Scherenberg formed one of the two centres of their lordship in the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1344, John IV of Ifenthal, known as "junker of Scherenberg", founded an anniversary there in favour of the convent of Ebersecken. The site declined during the 14th century, as the family shifted its centre to the lordship of Bechburg, on the southern slope of the Hauenstein. The site today offers a singular curiosity: between 1939 and 1945, Hans Widmer carved reliefs on the sandstone walls left by quarrying, inspired by the Bible, folk tales and Swiss history, documented by the Aargau cantonal monuments service.