Author: Maarten Koning

In the Middle Ages, several houses were located on the Arenenberg estate. The castle complex, dating from the 16th to the 19th century, is largely intact. The most significant loss is the theatre, built in 1817, which was later demolished.

Anton Prosper von Streng (1694-1781) possessed Arenenberg Castle in the 18th century. His grandson, Johann Baptist von Streng, sold the castle in February 1817 to Hortense de Beauharnais (1783-1837), former Queen of Holland (1806-1810). Louis Napoleon (1808-1873), Hortense’s only child, accompanied his mother to Lake Constance and grew up there.

They created an estate with Parisian charm and a landscape park. From 1832, he was the pretender to the French throne. He lived alternately in Arenenberg and Gottlieben Castle. France elected him President of the Second Republic in 1848 and Emperor four years later.

In 1870 and 1871, the Prussian-French War and a revolution ended his reign. Empress Eugénie (1826-1920) donated the castle to the canton of Thurgau in 1906. She attached a condition to this: the buildings should house a museum, specifically the Napoleon Museum of today. The museum largely corresponds to the state of the imperial period.

Arenenberg Castle refers to the entire complex: the education and advisory centre buildings and the museum. Gardens, a hermitage, an arboretum, vineyards and orchards have always surrounded the Arenenberg.

Napoleon III and his Chalets

It seems that his stay in Switzerland was one of the sources of inspiration for the construction of chalets at his summer residence in Vichy during his reign as Emperor (1852–1870).

From 1863 onwards, several chalets were built on the Boulevard des États-Unis for him, his imperial family and his staff. He housed the officers of the Imperial Guard in eight identical villas on the nearby Rue Alquié.

Vichy had already become a renowned spa resort in the preceding decades. During his reign, and thanks to its prestige as an imperial summer residence, Vichy attained its current grandeur – a status that even the collaboration of Philippe Pétain (1856–1951) cannot detract from.

(Source: D. Gügel, Arenenberg, Labhard Medien, Konstanz, Napoleonmuseum Arenenberg).

Salenstein

One of the smallest towns and communities in Switzerland owes its origins to Bishop Eberhard II of Constance. Gottlieben (Thurgau Canton) lies on the Seerhein, the short waterway between Lake Constance and Lower Lake.

He built a moated castle in 1251 because of conflicts with the citizens of Constance and to divert trade to Gottlieben. The castle was the residence of the bishop.

The town was built and fortified, and a trading centre with market rights emerged. The townscape is still characterised by beautiful half-timbered houses from the 17th century, a beautiful avenue along the Seerhein and Gottlieben Castle.

During the Council of Constance (1414-1418), it became the dungeon of the deposed pope John XXIII (1370-1419) and the Bohemian reformer Jan Hus (1369-1415).
Hus died at stake in Constance on 6 July 1415. His death led to the Hussite Wars (1419-1434), which devastated half of Europe from Brandenburg to Bavaria and Hungary.

During the Reformation, Gottlieben adopted the Protestant faith. Swedish troops destroyed the city twice during the 30-Year War, in 1633 and 1646.

Hortense de Beauharnais (1783-1837), the former queen of Holland, stepdaughter and sister-in-law of Emperor Napoleon I, went into exile in 1817 in the nearby castle Arenenberg. Her son, Prince Louis Napoleon (1808-1873), bought Gottlieben Castle in 1836 and had the residential wing rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style. In 1852, he ascended the French throne as Emperor Napoleon III.

(Source: www.gottlieben.ch).

The Seeburg Castle was built in 1598. Swedish troops set it on fire in 1633 during the Thirty Years’ War. The Kreuzlingen monastery rebuilt the castle before it was transferred to the canton of Thurgau following the abolition of the monastery in 1848.

In 1870, the castle was rebuilt to its present appearance. Since 1958, the castle has been owned by the city of Kreuzlingen and has undergone extensive renovation.

The lake level lowered in the 1960s. Until then, the Seeburg stood directly on the shore of Lake Constance.

The castle in the magnificent Seepark houses a restaurant and rooms for events, meetings, parties and seminars today.

(Source: www.schloss-seeburg.ch).

The provost (Propsteikirche) in Wagenhausen (Thurgau Canton) is a former monastery on the banks of the Rhine, founded by Tuoto of Wagenhausen in 1083.

The church is a three-aisled Romanesque basilica in the Lombard style. The northern side aisle was demolished around 1600.

The frescoes on the triumphal arch date back to the 13th century. The frescoes of Saint Agatha (north wall), Saint Sebastian (choir), Saint Anthony and Benedict (side aisle) were painted after 1500. The baptismal font is from 1512. The pulpit from the 17th century.

The bell tower has three bells: a Maria bell from 1291, a large bell from 1514 and a small bell from 1953. The “Mariaglocke” is the oldest working bell in Switzerland and dates back to the founding of the Swiss Confederation.

In 1525, the provostry was abolished. It has been a Protestant church since 1529. Today, it is also used for cultural and residential purposes.

(Source: www.thurgau-bodensee.ch).

The wooden bridge connects the German town of Bad Säckingen (Baden-Württemberg) with the municipality of Stein in the Fricktal (canton of Aargau).
It is the longest covered wooden bridge in Europe, spanning 204 meters.

The wooden bridge was first mentioned in the annals of Colmar in 1272 and consisted of twelve wooden pillars. The wooden bridge was destroyed several times by wars and floods, but was rebuilt each time. The wooden bridge was closed entirely during World War II.

After having belonged to the House of Habsburg-Austria for more than 500 years, the Fricktal and the Rhine became the national border between Germany and Switzerland due to political developments following the Treaty of Lunéville (1801). The Fricktal was Austrian until 1799.

Between the Grand Duchy of Baden and the Canton of Aargau, the most incredible depth of the Rhine was the national border, but in the case of bridges, the middle of the bridge.

A bridge toll financed the maintenance of the bridge until the mid-19th century. The Swiss side collected the money in the bridge house.

Around the middle of the 12th century, the Truchsessen of Ittingen turned their castle into an Augustinian monastery.

In 1461, the impoverished Augustinian canons sold their monastery to the Carthusian order. The building was in a state of disrepair and underwent substantial renovation. Furthermore, they added a large cloister with cells for hermits.

In the summer of 1524, there was an uprising in the Thurgau-Zurich border region caused by the Catholic bailiffs’ decision to arrest a reformed pastor in Stein am Rhein. The angry crowd ransacked the charterhouse, looted the wine cellar and set fire to the monastery’s building. It took the monastery several decades to recover from this devastation.

The Kartause Ittingen Urbarium dates back to 1743. Josephus Wech (1702–1761) was an outstanding custodian. He systematically collected all the information he could gather about the monastery’s history and its possessions, rights and duties, writing it down into 39 books. These books, the so-called urbaria, describe the monastery’s development between 1525 and 1760.

Josephus Wech is also responsible for the remarkable map detailing the monastery’s possessions. Created in 1745 and measuring almost 3×5 metres, it complements the books, recording all the monastery’s property.

The new urbarium closed the sensitive gap torn in the monastery’s archive by the ransacking of Ittingen. This new administrative tool helped him introduce a management style that was very modern at the time. His records serve as the founding blocks for the monastery’s professional management, contributing significantly to its prosperity in the 18th century.

In the 19th century, the social conditions for monasteries underwent dramatic changes. The French Revolution had overthrown the feudal system, and the Napoleonic wars introduced a new political organisation in Switzerland.

The Canton of Thurgau was founded in 1803 (by the Act of Mediation and the Confederation 1803-1813). The Charterhouse was put under state control and finally dissolved in 1848.

Kartause Ittingen was bought by Victor Feh in 1867. He lived in the former monastery until his death and ran a large agricultural business.

Under Viktor Fehr (1848-1936), the monastery was converted into a feudal manor house. The landlord’s family lived in the former prior’s rooms; the refectory was converted into a representative dining hall, and the chapter house was turned into an assembly room.

The Protestant family used the monk’s choir for christenings, weddings, and abdications and served as their private church.

The furnishings of the former monastery became the backdrop for the lifestyle of an affluent bourgeois family. In 1880, the new owner set a striking architectural note by adding a loggia and terrace to the south wing. Set in front of the entrance to the landlord’s residence, this construction incorporated several elements to reference the building’s function as a manor house.

The Kartause Ittingen Foundation was established in 1977, and the Ittingen Museum was inaugurated in 1983. The Kunstmuseum Thurgau is located in the former church. The complex houses hotel accommodation and seminar facilities, and organises (cultural) events.

(Source and further information: www.kartause.ch).

The town hall in Stein am Rhein (canton of Schaffhausen) was built in 1539-1542, and the half-timbered construction was added in 1745. It also served as a grain and department store for a long time.

It took on its present form in 1899 when the market hall was closed, and the bay window and paintings were added.

The history paintings are by Carl von Häberlin (1832-1911) from Stuttgart, the coats of arms and figures by Christian Schmidt from Zurich.

The Gothic Great Council Hall houses, among other things, the famous collection of coats of arms from 1542 and a collection of weapons. In the small council hall, furnished with gilded panelling in the rococo style in 1766, the city council has met without interruption since 1542.

(Source: www.tourismus.steinamrhein.ch).