Büningen Castle – Beroldinger Haus (town hall)

Overview

On 28 February 1362, Knight Hesse Snewelin from the court of Ludwig of Wigersheim bought a castle ‘with a tower, walls and ditches’. The castle had previously moved from the hands of the Trösche-Arra family to the Wigersheim family through marriage. The Ankenreut and von Stadion families also subsequently owned the moated castle. They must have carried out the initial conversion work before it fell into the hands of Zurich Colonel Hans Werner Äscher. The castle was burnt down during the Thirty Years’ War. Gervasius Äscher, Baron of Umkirch and Hoffenheim, had the moated castle rebuilt in around 1669. He also gave the castle the name ‘Büningen’ based on the castle of the same name near Basel that had come into the Äscher family through marriage. Emperor Ferdinand II authorised the name transfer. In the late 17th century, the castle was owned by Friedrich of Beroldingen and his wife Franziska Susanna of Falkenstein. The moat and the drawbridge probably disappeared at around this time. In 1826, the Barons of Kageneck bought the property, which was described as a ‘guest house’ in the purchase contract. During the subsequent period, the building served as a forester’s house, an orphanage, a school and a nurses’ home and, more recently, a notary’s office, registry office and museum.

After an extensive renovation in 2005, the local council moved in from the old town hall on the high street into the 750-year-old Büningen Castle with its shiny new facelift.