Ruine de Maggenberg
Origin of the name Ruine de Maggenberg
The place-name Maggenberg first appears in 1148, in a bull of Pope Eugene III for the Cluniac priory of Rüeggisberg. The family that bore it is also called « de Montmacon » in French. The upper castle, Ober-Maggenberg, is thus distinguished from the lower castle near Tafers. The hamlets of Maggenberg, in Tafers, and Obermaggenberg, in Alterswil, keep the name.[1][4][5]
Founding of Ruine de Maggenberg
The Maggenbergs were ministeriales, probably arriving with the Zähringen unless they came from the area. Their first castle, Unter-Maggenberg, stood near Tafers. East of Alterswil, on a rocky spur at 890 m above the Sense, they built Ober-Maggenberg castle at the end of the 13th century (or around 1300), replacing the original seat. It probably served as a refuge castle in the 13th and early 14th centuries. In the 13th century their lands stretched along the Sarine from Pont-la-Ville and Praroman to Fendringen near Bösingen. Ober-Maggenberg is the only castle in the Sense district still partly standing.[1][2][4][5][6]
History of Ruine de Maggenberg
1148. Maggenberg appears in a bull of Eugene III for Rüeggisberg.[5]
1180. Members of the Maggenberg family witness a donation to Hauterive abbey (Altenryf).[5]
1182. Cono and Konrad, sons of Ulrich I and probably leading burghers of Fribourg, are granted with others the right to be buried at Hauterive or Humilimont.[1]
1257-1350. Five Maggenbergs, Konrad II, Wilhelm I, Ulrich II, Johann I and Johann II, serve as avoyers (mayors) of Fribourg.[1]
1267. Ulrich II, a loyal servant of Rudolf of Habsburg, receives the advocacy of Alterswil as a fief.[1]
1273. Konrad II is buried in the cloister of Hauterive under a slab bearing his arms, a fleur-de-lis.[1][5]
Late 13th century. Ober-Maggenberg castle rises above the Sense (around 1300, judging by its type).[2][4][5]
1339. On 21 June Johann I falls at the battle of Laupen at the head of the Fribourg troops.[1][5]
1362. While Johann II, the last Maggenberg, is still alive, the patronage of Tafers passes to Johann Velga. The fiefs go in 1370 to his brother Wilhelm Velga.[1]
1386. During the Sempach war the castle is partly destroyed (in 1387, in the fighting between Bern and Fribourg, according to other authors).[1][4][5][6]
1394. The lordship of Maggenberg belongs to Jean de Vuippens.[1]
1408. Fribourg sells Ober-Maggenberg to Richard von Umbrechtsschwendi, later known as Richard von Maggenberg.[1][5]
1439. His son Hensli has to sell the castle and fief back to the town of Fribourg.[1]
1599. The Fribourg council allows two men to hunt for treasure near the ruin, watched over by the priest of Rechthalten.[5]
Around 1750. David Herrliberger engraves a view of the ruin seen from the east.[5]
1928. To save it, the Sense local history society (Deutschfreiburger Heimatkundeverein) buys the ruin for 100 francs (in 1927, by another of the society's dates). In 1929 a gift and the purchase of a plot of forest make it owner of the whole site.[4][5]
1951-1952. A retaining wall is built beneath the tower's foundations, and sections of masonry are secured.[4][5]
1993-1994. The ruin is renovated as part of a job-creation scheme.[4][5]
Historic sites in Ruine de Maggenberg
Keep of Ober-Maggenberg. Only the keep of the castle still stands, at 890 m above the Sense, near the hamlet of Obermaggenberg. The site belongs to the Kultur Natur Deutschfreiburg association, successor to the society that bought it.[2][4][5][6]
Remains in Ruine de Maggenberg
Unter-Maggenberg. The family's first seat, probably its original castle, stood near Tafers. Traces of this 12th and 13th-century castle survive in the Maggenberg wood (Maggenbergholz).[1][3][4]
The keeper's finds. In the 1920s and 1930s the keeper Peter Burri cleared a cistern and found horseshoes, fragments of chain mail, coins, arrowheads, roof rivets and sherds.[5]
A ruin used as a quarry. People from the surrounding area long took stones from the ruin, and sandstone was cut from the rock to build stoves.[5]
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Maggenberg, von » (Kathrin Utz Tremp, version du 13.08.2008)
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Alterswil » (Jean-François Steiert, version du 10.06.2021)
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Tafers » (Peter F. Kopp, version du 10.06.2021)
- Kultur Natur Deutschfreiburg (KUND), « Ruine Obermaggenberg »
- Deutschfreiburger Heimatkundeverein, « Obermaggenberg » (dépliant des 80 ans de la société, 2006)
- Fribourg Région, « Burg Obermaggenberg »
Other villages near Ruine de Maggenberg
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