SWITZERLAND 2022

After the year 2021 without visiting my sister Florence in Zug in Switzerland, I finally returned to the Confoederatio Helvetica in March 2022. I stayed over a week. More than a family visit, I organised an excursion to French-speaking Switzerland, also known as Romandy to visit Maxime and the vineyards of Lavaux in the canton of Vaud, near Lausanne. I also booked a journey on the world-famous Glacier Express from Sankt Moritz to Brig. Furthermore, I looked for a nice way in and out. The ÖBB Nightjet night train from Amsterdam to Zurich and the voyage home via Lyon in France.

With my brother-in-law Kenneth and I visited Thun, in the bilingual canton of Bern / Berne.

Thun is located where the Aare river flows out of Lake Thun (Thunersee), 30 kilometres (19 miles) southeast of the city of Bern.

As of December 2018 the municipality has almost about 45,000 inhabitants and around 80,000 live in the agglomeration.

Besides tourism, machine and precision instrument engineering, the largest garrison in the country, the food industry, armaments and publishing are of economic importance to Thun.

Thun Castle

Thun Castle or Schloss Thun is the main landmark of the town.

The castle was built between 1180 and 1190 by Duke Berthold V of Zähringen, who constructed the still preserved keep. However, the family never lived in the castle, preferring Burgdorf Castle.

In 1218 it was inherited by the House of Kyburg, who built the upper levels above the Zähringen castle. A quarrel over who would rule the southern Kyburg lands led, in 1322, to Eberhard II von Kyburg murdering his brother Hartmann II at the castle.

To protect his newly acquired land from the House of Habsburg Eberhard II then sold them to Bern and was promptly given them back as a fief.

The Kyburgs ruled over the region for nearly two centuries until a failed raid by Rudolf II on Solothurn, in 1382, started the Burgdorferkrieg (also Kyburgerkrieg). After several decisive Bernese victories the Kyburgs were forced to concede an unfavorable peace.

In 1384 Bern bought Thun and Burgdorf, the most important cities of the Kyburg lands. The castle came under Bernese control and became the seat of their local administration.

The massive roof (1430–36) comes from the Bernese period. Due to the lack of residences in the castle, in 1429, an administrative and residential wing was added to the west of the keep, built in late Gothic style, and known as the ‘new castle’.

The castle was the seat of the local court and since at least the 17th century there was a prison under the roof of the donjon.

In 1886 a new prison was built on the castle grounds. Two years later, in 1888, the museum opened in the castle. For a time the jailer was also the ticket seller and guard for the museum.

In 2006, the castle was bought by the city of Thun from the canton of Bern. Until the end of 2009 the Bernese Oberland regional court was based in the castle.