Waldegg Castle

Waldegg Castle, or Schloss Waldegg, is a castle near Solothurn, in the municipality of Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus of the Canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

History
The Baroque castle was built between 1682 and 1686 as a summer house for the Schultheiss Johann Viktor P. Joseph von Besenval (1638–1713), and his wife Maria Margaritha von Sury (1649–1713).

The rise of a family
The family Besenval was originally from Torgnon in the Aosta Valley. They had risen socially in the service of King Louis XIV and had received a title of baron of the Holy Roman Empire from Emperor Leopold I in 1695. Furthermore, already in February 1655, Martin Besenval (1600–1600), Johann Viktor P. Joseph's father, was ennobled by King Louis XIV in gratitude for his merit for the French crown. And on 11 August 1726, King Louis XV erected the de Besenval's possession of Brunstatt in the Alsace into a French barony. The letters of nobility also applied to the descendants.

Johann Viktor von Besenval
Johann Viktor P. Joseph's son, Johann Viktor, Baron von Besenval von Brunstatt (1671–1736), was a diplomat and colonel in the regiment of the Swiss Guards of France. After he inherited the castle he had it renovated (1729–1734), adding a theater and the Chapel of Saint Michael in 1721, and decorated in the current French style. He brought numerous works of art back with him from France.

A wedding with royal congratulations
On 18 September 1716, Johann Viktor married Katarzyna Bielińska (1684–1761), daughter of Kazimierz Ludwik Bieliński, a Polish noble, politician, and diplomat. She was also the sister of Maria Magdalena Bielińska, div. Gräfin von Dönhoff, who was the Maîtresse-en-titre of King Augustus II the Strong. A marriage, that was warmly welcomed by Philippe II de Bourbon, Duc d'Orléans, Régent de France (1715–1723), since Johann Viktor was the French ambassador to Poland at the time.

Peter Viktor von Besenval
Johann Viktor's son, Peter Viktor, Baron von Besenval von Brunstatt, a Swiss military officer in French service, was born at the castle in 1721. However, he lived most of his life in France, where he was known as Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, and where, in 1767, he bought the Hôtel Chanac de Pompaodur and made it his residence in Paris. Today, the hôtel particulier is knwon as Hôtel de Besenval. It has housed the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation and the residence of the Swiss ambassador to France since 1938.

Although, he wasn't often in Switzerland, the baron did, however, add an orangery to the castle in 1780.

The French Revolution: The beginning of the end of an era
The French Revolution of 1789 was disastrous to the family's influence, business interests, and wealth. Although, all the family members survived the terror of the French Revolution – Peter Viktor von Besenval spent several months in prison in Paris and only escaped death with a lot of luck –, their close ties to the French Royal Family and other high-ranking members of the Ancien Régime made life more and more difficult for them in France.

The sale of the baron's furniture to the Swiss Confederation
On 19 May 1938, the Swiss Confederation purchased the Hôtel de Besenval in Paris as the country's new embassy building. In the same year, the Swiss Government bought from the patrician family von Sury, the then owners of the Waldegg Castle, a sofa and six chairs, covered in beige fabric and embroidered with scenes from the fables of Jean de La Fontaine, except for the sofa, which is covered with a pattern of flowers and birds.

According to oral tradition, the sofa and the six chairs once belonged to Peter Viktor von Besenval and were part of the furnishings of the Hôtel de Besenval. It is said that the baron sent these pieces of furniture, along with other pieces of furniture and art objects, to Switzerland shortly before the French Revolution. The furniture ensemble is now on display at the Hôtel de Besenval in the Salon de la tapisserie.

Josef von Sury von Bussy
Josef von Sury von Bussy (1817–1887), who had been married to Charlotte de Besenval (1826–1885) since 26 June 1848, bought the castle on 6 February 1865 from the last members of the family de Besenval who were entitled to inherit the Fidéicommis de Waldegg, amongst others from Amédée de Besenval (1809–1899), his brother-in-law. With Amédée Victor Louis de Besenval (1862–1927), the main line of the family died out in 1927.

The new owner added two apartments and changed the Baroque garden into an English garden. However, the alterations to the garden were reversed during subsequent renovations in the 1990s.

Later years
In 1963 the castle was transferred to the Waldegg Castle Foundation and in 1975 it became the headquarters of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue, an organization that fosters understanding between the different languages and cultures of Switzerland. In 1985, a comprehensive renovation programme was started that lasted 20 years. The castle museum opened in 1991.

Architecture
The castle was built in the local Türmlihaus style – meaning a house with many towers, compared to its size – with clearly visible architectural influences from the French and the Italian Baroque.

In the first construction phase in the 17th century, the rectangular wing, the corps de logis, designed by an unknown architect, was built with three tower-like pavilions facing the garden, between each of which there is a three-axis building section with a crowning gable.

From 1689, after Johann Viktor P. Joseph von Besenval (1638–1713) was appointed Schultheiss of the Republic of Solothurn, long, one-story galleries were added on both sides of the corps de logis, at the ends of which are corner turrets, a kind of small pavilions. At the beginning of the 18th century, these one-story galleries were heightened by one floor. These first floor galleries were formerly used as loggias. Niches in the galleries house allegorical statues which were carved in 1683 by Johann Peter Frölicher (1662–1723).

Smaller than it actually seems: A façade castle
The castle is also known as a façade castle because the two expanded wings of the building to the left and to the right of the corps de logis only consist of galleries with balusters, which serve as connecting corridors, leading to the corner turrets, the small pavilions. Behind the galleries with their large windows with usually closed shutters, however, there are no parts of the building. However, especially from a distance, these galleries make the castle appear much larger than it actually is. All in all, the façade measures 78 meters. This makes it one of the longest castle façades in Switzerland.

Behind the façade
The windows of the galleries provide a clear view of the rear courtyard of the building, the north side, with the less glamorous courtyard façade, where the farm buildings are also located, as well as one of the two chapels. This chapel was dedicated to Saint Michael in honour of Katarzyna Bielińska (1684–1761), the Polish wife of Johann Viktor von Besenval.

Main hall and the salons
The main hall has ten allegorical paintings of the Arts and Sciences and is decorated with supraporte and trompe-l'œil illusions. The eastern salon has a grisaille style ceiling painting while the west salon and the billiard room both have trompe-l'œil ceiling frescos, some of which are by the local artist Wolfgang Aeby (1638–1694).

Two chapels
The eastern turret houses the Castle chapel with a high-Baroque altar from 1720 and paintings by Wolfgang Aeby (1638–1694). The second chapel, the Chapel of Saint Michael, built by Johann Viktor von Besenval in 1721, features reproduction paintings showing Saint Michael by Raphael and Saint Raphael by Domenico Fetti, the originals of which both hang in the Louvre.