Oberhofen Castle

Oberhofen Castle is situated in the municipality of Oberhofen am Thunersee, Switzerland. It was originally established by medieval European nobility during the High Middle Ages.

The earliest recorded proprietor was Freiherr Werner von Oberhofen. Around the year 1200, his daughter Ita married into the von Eschenbach family. This family undertook the initial construction of a new moated fortress along the shores of Lake Thun in the 13th century, marking the foundational phase of the castle’s development.

In the early 14th century, specifically in 1306, the von Eschenbach family was forced to relinquish ownership, selling the castle and its lands to the Habsburgs. Under Habsburg rule, it was granted as a fief to Leopold I. Subsequent stewardship passed through a series of vassals, including the Kyburg family, reflecting the castle’s role within feudal governance.

Following the Habsburg defeat at the Battle of Sempach in 1386, the city of Bern moved to assert control over the territory. By 1397, Bern acquired all feudal rights to Oberhofen and transferred ownership to Ludwig von Seftigen, initiating a period where the castle changed hands among several Bernese patrician families. Prominent among these were the von Scharnachthal and von Erlach families.

When the male line of the von Erlach family ended in 1652, Bern assumed direct administration of Oberhofen. The castle became the official residence of the bailiff—the local administrator overseeing the bailiwick (an administrative district). This status continued until 1798, when French revolutionary forces invaded, resulting in political restructuring that ended Bern’s traditional control.

In the 19th century, the castle passed into private ownership. Between 1849 and 1852, the Pourtàles family carried out extensive renovations, reshaping Oberhofen Castle in the Romantic, or Neo-Gothic, style which was fashionable at the time. Later, in 1940, American lawyer William Maul Measey established the Oberhofen Castle Foundation to protect and manage the property. This foundation entrusted the castle’s care to the Bern Historical Museum in 1952, which subsequently opened the site to the public. Since 2009, the foundation has operated independently, continuing stewardship of the historic site.