The Villages Ormalingen and Buus near the Farnsburg
4 October 2026
Two small villages near the Farnsburg Castle tell the story of this castle, once called the ‘Queen of Castles’ in this region. Time has passed by, but the links are still clearly visible.
Ormalingen
The village of Ormalingen has always had close ties to the Farnsburg. The village’s coat of arms commemorates its former inhabitants, the noblemen of Zielemp. They held a feudal fief at the castle, where they resided in the ‘Zielempen House’ in the outer bailey around the mid-14th century.
Later, the family moved to the house in Olten named after them, then to Hagberg Castle and finally to Aarau. In Olten, the old residential tower on the River Aare is still adorned today with the Zielemp coat of arms.
Normandingen was first mentioned in 1286. It is the name of an early medieval settlement and is probably derived from ‘Nordmann’. In the Middle Ages, the village belonged in turn to the Counts of Homberg, the Counts of Froburg, the Lords of Falkenstein, for a shortwhile to the Counts of Habsburg-Laufenburg and the Counts of Thierstein-Farnsburg.
In 1461, Ormalingen, together with the Thierstein-Farnsburg domain, came under the jurisdiction of the city of Basel. The village is situated in the upper Ergolz Valley on the old thoroughfare leading to the Schafmatt Pass, a formerly important Jura mountain pass and the former grandeur of a trading city can still be seen.
Buus
The name is derived from the Proto-Alemannic place name ‘Hof ze Bus’. In the Middle Ages, the village probably belonged to Beromünster Abbey, then passed to the Counts of Lenzburg, the Counts of Frohburg, the Counts of Habsburg-Laufenburg and finally, together with the Farnsburg, to the Counts of Thierstein.
In 1461, Thomas von Falkenstein sold Farnsburg to the city of Basel. For over 300 years, the Basel bailiffs ruled over the surrounding countryside from Farnsburg. From the 14th century until 1805, the right of patronage over the church belonged to the German monastic house in Beuggen, on the other side of the Rhine, opposite Möhlin (canton Aargau).
Bus did not merely become Buus; it is also home to one of the earliest churches in the canton of Basel-Landschaft. St Michael’s Church dates from the 7th century and was probably built on the site of a Roman building. Excavations have revealed a wooden church from that century. Six graves dating from the 7th or 8th century were also discovered.
A man richly adorned with a sword, comb, belt and lance is thought to have been the church’s founder. Only a couple of post holes remain from the original wooden church. St Michael’s Church is first mentioned in written sources in 1273. The present-day church dates from 1665. From then on, it was extended in several phases until it took on its present form in 1944.
(Source and further information: Gemeinde Buus; Gemeinde Ormalingen)
Schloss Beuggen (Baden-Württemberg)
