Kasteln Castle

The origins of Kasteln Castle date back to around 1200, when Kasteln Castle was built in the central Schenkenberg Valley. The Lords of Kasteln, vassals of the Kyburgs, were first mentioned as residents in a document in 1238. Around 1262, Ruchenstein Castle was erected on an adjacent rocky outcrop, inhabited by the Knights of Ruchenstein. After the extinction of the Kyburgs in 1264, the region fell to the Habsburgs. In the early 14th century, the Ruchenstein and Kasteln families died out, whereupon the Lords of Mülinen from Brugg acquired both castles and ruled a small area on the southern edge of the Jura from there. In 1631, Johann Ludwig von Erlach, a Bernese patrician and general, bought the two castles. In 1642, he commissioned the conversion of Kasteln Castle into a palace. Ruchenstein Castle was demolished in 1643 and served as a source of building materials for the conversion, which dragged on until 1650 and became costly due to a lack of expert opinions and the owner's absence. After about a hundred years in the possession of the von Erlach family, the Kasteln lordship was sold to the city of Bern in 1750 and subsequently formed the smallest bailiwick of Bernese Aargau. With the end of the Ancien Régime, the state domain passed to the newly founded canton of Aargau in 1803, which sold it to private individuals in 1836.