Büningen Castle

Old documents mention a castle "with tower, walls and moat," which Knight Hesse Snewelin bought on January 28, 1362, in the courtyard of Ludwig von Wigersheim. Previously, the castle was owned by the Trösche-Arra von Umkirch family, a lineage documented as early as 1215. The castle burned down during the Thirty Years' War, probably in 1637.

Gervasius Äscher (Gervasius Escher v. Binningen, Baron of Umkirch and Hoffenheim, 1618-1669) had the moated castle rebuilt between 1663 and 1669. From him, the castle received the name "Büningen." The name goes back to a still-existing castle near Basel, whose last heiress Ursula Grieb von Binningen had married Gervasius Äscher's great-grandfather (Nicklaus Escher) in 1530. Thus, the surname "von Binningen" passed to this branch of the originally Zurich patrician family Escher.

In the following centuries, the property was used as an inn, forester's house, orphanage, school, and sisters' house. The current building essentially dates back to this structure.