Manegg Castle: A Medieval Hill Castle above Zurich
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Switzerland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
The Manesse family and the castle
Manegg Castle is a medieval hill castle in Switzerland, above Leimbach on the outskirts of Zurich. First mentioned in 1303, it became the family seat of the noble Manesse family, although the builders are unknown and it remains uncertain whether the family took its name from the castle or the castle from the family.
The Manesse began as merchants and entered the knightly nobility through their wealth. They held fiefs from Fraumünster Abbey, Einsiedeln Abbey, and the Holy Roman Empire, the loose central European political framework to which Zurich belonged. The family became one of medieval Zurich’s most important, with Rüdiger I Manesse regarded as the founder of its noble line. His son, Rüdiger II, established the branch based at Manegg and served on Zurich’s council for nearly forty years.
The family is also associated with the Codex Manesse, a major surviving collection of Minnesang, the medieval German tradition of courtly love poetry and song. Rüdiger Manesse and his son Johannes, treasurer of Zurich’s collegiate foundation, commissioned or patronized the collection around 1300.
Decline, destruction, and literary memory
The fortunes of the Manesse family declined during the late fourteenth century. In 1393, Ital Maness sold the castle at public auction to a Jewish man identified as Visli or Vifli. His widow sold it to Selnau Abbey in 1400 for 35 florins. Manegg was apparently already uninhabited by 1393 or soon afterward.
A fire destroyed the castle in 1409, and it was not restored. Later tradition blamed the destruction on a masked carnival society that staged a mock siege on Ash Wednesday. Substantial wall remains survived into the seventeenth century, but the ruins then continued to deteriorate. Today, only limited foundations and wall fragments remain visible.
The site acquired a further place in Zurich’s cultural history through the nineteenth-century writer Gottfried Keller, whose works often drew on the city’s past and landscape. His Zurich Novellas include The Fool on Manegg, a story about the decline of the Manesse family, the adventurer Butz Fallätscher’s settlement in the castle, and the negligent fire-setting attributed to the masked society. Its framing narrative includes an excursion to the ruins. During the nineteenth century, Manegg was a popular excursion destination, and in Keller’s time the site still provided a view over Lake Zurich and the city. Forest now obstructs that view.
Memorials and later interventions
Around 1800, Zurich councillor Hans Konrad von Meiss created a resting place and fountain in the former castle ditch. Unknown persons destroyed the fountain and stole its commemorative plaque in 1895. The fountain and plaque were probably restored in 1906 under the care of the Zurich Beautification Association.
The Swiss Heritage Protection Association planned a memorial to Gottfried Keller for his centenary in 1919. The project was delayed until 13 June 1921, when the five-ton monument was erected at Manegg after being transported over two weeks on a sledge drawn by a tractor and wire ropes. The ruins and these associated memorial features now lie within the city of Zurich, in the canton of Zurich.
Remains
Hilltop fortification and layout
Manegg occupies a side ridge of the Albis range at approximately 623 metres above sea level. A deep ditch protected the side facing the mountain, while steep slopes defended the other sides. The castle site measured about 35 by 9 metres. A wooden bridge probably led from the mountain side to an outer defensive enclosure measuring around 8 by 5 metres, which was commanded by the tower.
A southern inner gate beside the tower opened into a courtyard about 8 metres long and 9 metres wide. The courtyard separated the tower on the west from the palas, the principal residential or ceremonial building of a medieval castle, on the east. The surviving fabric consists mainly of foundations and fragments of castle walls.
Principal buildings
Tower
The tower had a footprint of approximately 7.8 by 7.95 metres, with walls 2.28 metres thick. It was built from molasse blocks, a relatively soft sedimentary sandstone widely used in the Zurich region. A high entrance in the northern corner of the tower’s eastern wall could be reached only from the palas, linking the tower’s access to the residential building.
Palas
The palas had an almost square ground plan, measuring approximately 12.6 by 10.5 metres. Its position east of the courtyard formed one half of the castle’s central arrangement, with the tower standing opposite it on the west. The building survives through its foundations and associated fragments of the castle walls.
Fountain and memorial stone
Manesse Fountain
The Manesse Fountain stands in the former castle ditch. Its bell-metal commemorative plaque honours Rüdiger Manesse as a friend of courtly singers and a defender of justice, and refers to his death in 1304. It also commemorates his grandson’s victory at the 1351 Battle of Dättwil against the Habsburgs, the major European ruling dynasty whose territorial conflicts extended into the Swiss region. The translated inscription reads: “In memory of the knight Rüdiger Manesse of Manegg, friend of the courtly singers, repository of justice in counsel and action. He died in 1304. His grandson was victorious at Dättwil.”
The fountain and plaque were probably restored in 1906. The year appears on the fountain trough.
Gottfried Keller memorial
The Gottfried Keller memorial stone is 1.40 metres high. Robert Rittmeyer designed it, and Johannes Rigendinger executed it in Zurich-Wollishofen. Its stone came from quarries at Othmarsingen and Mägenwil. The front carries the inscription, “To the poet and guardian spirit of his homeland, Gottfried Keller, on his 100th birthday, 19 July 1919.” Beneath the inscription is a medallion showing an oak as a symbol of the poet’s rooted strength.
The reverse states that the memorial was presented in 1920 by the Swiss Heritage Protection Association through the Zurich Heritage Protection Association. It forms part of the later commemorative landscape associated with the castle ruins and Keller’s literary treatment of Manegg.
