Traces of settlement in the area of Spiez date far back to the pre- and early historical periods, as evidenced by the numerous finds; burial objects from the period around 1750 – 1500 B.C; Bronze and Iron Age artefacts proving that settlement persisted, followed by graves dating from the 4th to 2nd c.B.C. A fortified Bronze Age residential settlement was excavated on the ‘Bürg’, one of three spits of land, with the Spiezberg and the castle peninsula, which jut out into the lake. There are also traces of a Celtic settlement and finally a horseman’s grave discovered on the castle peninsula which dates to some time in the 6th to 8th c.A.D. We may therefore assume that the area of the current castle was already occupied and fortified in the 7th c.A.D.
Spiez was mentioned in a document for the first time in 762 A.D. This first written reference is to be found in the last will and testament of Bishop Heddo of Strasbourg (circa 697-776), which disposes of the Alsatian cloister in Ettenheim, the church and tithes of Spiez as well as other goods and rights.
The castle’s history was shaped for almost 700 years by the three historically significant families who owned it – the barons of Strättligen, the lords of Bubenberg, and the patrician family from the city of Berne, the von Erlachs – from the end of the 12th c. till 1875.
The first documented proprietors of the barony at Spiez were the Barons of Strättligen, specifically named as the lords over Spiez in the middle of the 13th c. – in 1250 Heinrich III attested von Strättligen as the “dominus de Spiez”. Mentioned for the first time in 1175, the male line expired before 1350. In the 13th and beginning of the 14th c. they emerged as the bailiffs of Wimmis, acquired the barony of Spiez, made donations to the cloister at Interlaken and at the same time pursued a selective marriage policy, which affiliated them with influential aristocratic families in the Confederacy territories. The most important representative oft he house from a historico-cultural viewpoint was the historically not clearly identifiable minnesinger Heinrich [II (or III)]., who did make it into the famous collection of songs of the early 14th c. Codex Manesse with three songs he composed - so called ‘planh’ or laments on courtly love.
A heavy burden of debts finally forced Johann [IV] of Strättligen to sell the barony of Spiez to the lords of Bubenberg in 1338.
Graffiti from the 13th v. discovered in the upper floor of the castle keep, offer us a glimpse into the everyday life of this dynasty of barons from the Bernese Oberland. Realistically sketched scenes of tournaments illustrate the dynastic ties between the Strättligens and the lords of Ringgenberg, Weissenburg and Gruyere. They emphasize how strongly rooted the family were locally and likewise provide an outstanding iconographical reference for day-to-day chivalric culture in the High Middle Ages.
The Bubenbergs, a knightly Bernese ministerial family, were closely intertwined with the early history of the city of Berne and one of the leading families in Berne in the 14th and 15th c.
Johann [II] von Bubenberg, mayor of Berne, acquires the castle and the baronage of Spiez with all buildings and rights on 29th October 1338 for an amount of 5600 pounds Bernese Currency. The villages Spiez, Leissigen, Faulensee, Hondrich, Spiezwiler and Einigen were included. Towards the 15th c. economic difficulties forced them to sell off some of their extensive estates. The male line expired with Adrian [II] in 1506, and most of the legacy was sold off to Ludwig von Diesbach. From him it passed on to the von Erlach family in 1516.
The origins of the Bernese von Erlach family are obscure. Firmly documented in 1299 is a Baronet Ulrich as the castellan of Erlach in the service of the Cunts of Nidau, who owned an ancestral seat in the city of Berne. The Erlachs already attained citizenship of Berne around 1300. They belonged to both the ‘Distelzwang’ (clerics and aristocracy) and the ‘Schmieden’ (metalworkers) guild. The latter was one of the four knight banneret guilds which wielded a great deal of political influence. In the service of the republic they quickly advanced to become one of the leading families. Over the centuries they provided many mayors of Berne, acquired manors in Bernese territory, both close to the city and further afield. They distinguished themselves as military leaders in the service of foreign armies and emerged as artistically-minded property owners. Some of the most important representatives of this extensive family were the Mayor of Berne Rudolf von Erlach, the man who commissioned the abridged one volume edition of the chronicle by Diebold Schilling, which was preserved at Spiez castle for hundreds of years and is known as the ‘Spiezer Schilling’. Then Franz Ludwig von Erlach (1575-1651), Baron of Spiez, Lord of Schadau, Bümpliz and Oberhofen, mayor of Burgdorf, from 1629 till 1651 Mayor of Berne and a leading statesman. He was an aesthetic magistrate who converted Spiez castle and installed the magnificent state room. Just as worthy of mention are Hans Ludwig von Erlach (1595-1650), the lord of Kastelen in Aargau, governor of the stronghold at Breisach and author of the first Federal military constitution; then the politically and militarily adept, luxury-loving Mayor of Berne, Hieronymus von Erlach (1667-1748) who built the castles of Thunstetten and Hindelbank and the Erlacherhof in the city of Berne.
The von Erlach family owned the castle at SPiez for nine generations. It was the Erlachs who made substantial changes and extensions to the substance of the buildings. Especially Franz Ludwig von Erlach (1575-1651), Baron of Spiez, Lord of Schadau, Bümpliz and Oberhofen, leading statesman and from 1629 till 1651 Mayor of Berne, converts the Palas in 1614 into the precious Baroque ballroom on the second floor.
The once illustrious era of the Erlachs in the castle on the Lake of Thun came to an end with Ferdinand Rudolf Albrecht von Erlach (1821-1884), the last owner of the castle and estate at Spiez. In 1873, impressed by the tourism blossoming in the Bernese Oberland, Ferdinand von Erlach lost all he had due to poor and misguided investments and in 1875 was forced to auction off the castle.
In 1879, Hermann Karl von Wilke (1827-1896), imperial and real privy legationary councillor from Berlin, purchased the marvellous castle on the Lake of Thun from the bankrupt estate. Henceforth the castle served his family as a summer residence. Wilke extended the building complex to meet his won needs and in the taste of the time.
In 1900, Spiez castle changed hands again, to Rosina Magdalena Gemuseus-Riggenbach (1831-1919) of Basel. Just seven years later she sold the castle to her nephew Dr. Wilhelm Schiess (1869-1929) whereby she retained a lifelong right of residence. It was not long, in 1922, before Wilhelm Schiess himself was looking for a buyer for the demanding property which was a heavy financial burden. For five years nothing happened until finally, in 1927, the Swiss Association for the Perservation of Forts and Castles took up the matter. They arranged a conference, the upshot of which was the establishment of the foundation. On 30 November 1927 the ‘Spiez Castle Foundation’ was established.
However, in order to purchase the castle complex a large sum of money had to be raised. This sum exceeded the means of the new foundation. So, a lottery was held to raise funds with the catchy motto “Save Spiez castle for the people of Switzerland”. The result was the impressive sum of 115’000 Swiss francs which encouraged other donors. The municipality of Spiez itself donated 30'000 francs, under the condition that in future the castle park would be open to the public. The sales contract between the foundation and Dr. Schiess was completed on 9 July 1929 although 120’000 francs of the price had not yet been raised. The foundation has manged Spiez castle and its park since 1929.
The information we have about the church is far earlier than any reliable information about the fortress. This knowledge was garnered partly from the archaeological findings which came to light during the restoration of the church in 1949/1950, and partly from the extraordinarily early written reference to the church dating from 762 A.D. It is not conceivable that it existed without an appendant manor. But we have no specific information on the subject.
The oldest part of the castle is the tower, which was built around 1245, as discovered during the architectural archaeological investigations in early 2019.
We find ourselves on firmer ground in the 15th c. After a disastrous blaze which left heavy traces on the north face of the keep, the middle wing and the north tract were completely reconstructed during the restoration of the castle. It was this reconstruction which gave the two buildings their current volume and arrangement. Dendrochronological analyses, supported by the evidence of formal elements, indicated a timeframe of 1456 to 1469.
In the middle wing, the cellar and the current entrance hall, presumably the storey above too, were lowered by a meter, all the joists were newly constructed, and all storeys were made accessible via the new stair tower. Towards the end of the construction, the current timber roof trusses were constructed.
The construction of the gatehouse can also be dated to the late 15th c.
The construction of the ‘Trüel’ (the room containing the wine press), can be dated to the earlier period of von Erlach’s era as evidenced by the arrangement of its windows. In the second half of the 16th c., most of the work carried out was pure maintenance. When Franz Ludwig von Erlach succeeded to the lordship in 1597 another intensive building phase began in the castle. It lasted till 1602 and involved all the main areas of the complex: the middle wing, the north building and the keep. He extended the living space in the actual dwelling area on the first floor, by straddling the ‘Trüel’ with four spacious rooms. Then he shifted the castle entrance around an axis, away from the old gate chamber and into the spacious ground floor entrance hall. The most conspicuous indication of the interior renovations on the 2nd floor was the three-storey high oriel he constructed.
Unforeseen circumstances prevented him from starting work on the palatial interior fittings until 1614. He separated off the large corridor which connects the entire 2nd floor with half-timbered walls and gave the hall an almost rectangular form by segmenting off some left-over space. The joiners created richly carved doors and panelling.
The garden hall at the north-east end of the garden terrace was already mentioned in 1707 due to improvements to its paintings. The building was expanded and richly appointed in the course of the 18th c. It appears that a significant part of the castle’s social life happened here. The garden hall and the reconstruction of the inn in 1743, both of them crowned with a fully hipped roof, delimited the courtyard to the east. The building works were concluded around 1745 and had transformed the fragmented bailey into a spacious baroque esplanade. The new manor house roofed with hipped gables was constructed in two phases; the first starting in 1746 and the second, more extended, in 1769. The comfortable lifestyle shifted to this new building, which was already known as the new manor house in 1761 and which took over the function of the old castle, with the result that some older features were preserved there.
The man who took possession of the complex in 1879, Hermann Karl von Wilke, was not satisfied with the modest appearance of the new manor house: it was given a fully hipped roof with picturesque pediment structures and corner oriels, to the south a panorama terrace. A large garden with supporting walls was adjoined here. The only building which was converted to what is its current form was the old inn from the 18th c., ‘Le Roselier’.
Since 1927 the Spiez Castle Foundation restores and preserves structurally the extensive castle complex while being advised by the preservation of monuments and archaeology of the canton.
Photo: Albrecht Kauw, Spiez at Lake Thun, around 1670, watercolor, 23.5 x 39.5 cm, cutout. Bernisches Historisches Museum.
Jürg Schweizer / Annelies Hüssy: Spiez Castle and its Church, Swiss Heritage Guides, 2015. ISBN: 978-3-03797-195-6
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