Landshut Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Landshut Castle is a fortified castle located north of the municipality of Utzenstorf in the canton of Bern (Switzerland). It is the only castle in the canton to be surrounded by a moat. The castle, built in the second half of the 12th century, was first the residence of the lords of Uzansdorf (1175–1323) and was enlarged by the counts of Kyburg in the 13th century. First mentioned in 1253 under the name Landeshuothe, it was then the seat of the Utzenstorf bailiwick. Destroyed by the people of Bern and Solothurn during the Gümmenen War in 1332, the castle was subsequently rebuilt. Ludwig von Diesbach, who acquired the lordship in 1479, sold it to Bern in two stages (1510 and 1514). The castle was then rebuilt on its former foundations in 1624–1630. The bailiwick, abolished in 1798, was incorporated into the district of Burgdorf and then into the bailiwick of Fraubrunnen in 1803. Sold by Bern to Niklaus Rudolf von Wattenwyl in 1812, who converted it into a country house, it subsequently passed through the hands of various owners. In 1925, the Rütimeyer family bought it back before transferring it in 1958 to the canton of Bern, which had it renovated. The castle, constituted as a foundation since 1988, houses the Swiss Museum of Game and Hunting.