Wildegg Castle

Wildegg Castle is a castle in the municipality of Möriken-Wildegg in the Swiss canton of Aargau. The complex is located about eighty meters above the village of Wildegg at the end of a rocky spur of the Chestenberg, near the confluence of the Bünz and the Aare. It has belonged to the Canton of Aargau since January 1, 2011.

In the first half of the 13th century, Habsburg ministeriales had a castle built to protect the southwestern corner of the Eigenamt, their core territory, and to control a strategically important point on the Aare. It was first mentioned in a document in 1242 and inhabited by a ministerial family of the Habsburgs, the Truchsesses of Habsburg and Wildegg. After their extinction, it passed to Johann I von Hallwyl around 1340. Peter von Gryffensee bought the castle from the Hallwyl in 1437 to return the Wildegg male fief to the city of Bern in 1457, which had been the feudal lord in lower Aargau since 1415. The fief passed to the brothers Hans, Hans Heinrich, and Hans Thüring von Ballmoos around 1462. Around 1480, the Central Swiss knight Albin von Silenen acquired the Wildegg fief, which displeased Bern, because shortly before, Heinrich Hasfurter of Lucerne had acquired Wildenstein Castle. Bern confiscated the fief and instead gave it in 1483/84, along with the patronage and lower jurisdiction of Holderbank and Möriken, to Kaspar Effinger of Brugg for about 1730 guilders. The Effingers passed this property down for eleven generations. In 1552, the castle almost completely burned down due to a lightning strike; only the masonry remained. Over several years, the castle was made habitable again. From 1684, the complex was converted into a residential castle in the Baroque style. In 1825, the so-called Erlachhaus was built next to the castle. Wildegg and its associated estates passed into the possession of the Effinger family trust in 1830. In 1886, a villa in the style of a country manor was built opposite the Erlachhaus.

Julie von Effinger, the last of her line, died in 1912 without descendants. She bequeathed the castle with almost all its furnishings and the associated domain to the Swiss Confederation, which handed over the entire estate to the National Museum for administration. The castle was renovated until 1917 and prepared for museum operations. The family heritage also includes an extensive archive with documents from several centuries, which was handed over to the Aargau State Archives in 2011.

Wildegg Castle changed ownership on January 1, 2011, to a foundation established by the Canton of Aargau. Museum operations were taken over by Museum Aargau on this date. The Grand Council of the Canton of Aargau had approved an annual credit for this in January 2010 with 104 to 22 votes. In the summer of 2011, the renovation of the castle, still financed by the Swiss Confederation, was completed.