Castle Quest - Reply to Topic

Forum:	Castles In General & Medieval History
Topic:	Swiss Castles

Want to register?

Who Can Post?	Any registered users may post a reply.
About Registration	You must be registered in order to post a topic or reply in this forum.
Posting Tips:	You will receive a much better response to your questions if you include your age and as much detail as possible. Both of these things allows a person to give you an answer specific to your question and age group.
Your UserName:
Your Password:	Forget your password?
Message Icon:
Your Reply: HTML is OFF UBB Code is ON [IMG] UBB Code Not Allowed!
Options	Show Signature: include your profile signature. Only registered users may have signatures.

If you have previously registered, but forgotten your password, click here.

*If HTML and/or UBB Code are enabled, this means you can use HTML and/or UBB Code in your message.

T O P I C R E V I E W
Edward Just a little mention I picked up a few weeks ago, regarding Swiss Castles. Perhaps someone on that side of the water can bring me up to date?
Picked a note up that the castles of Wimmis, Blankenburg, Burgdorf and Eriach are going up for sale.
Opinion seems to be very much against it. The fear being that Russian or Arab millionaires will buy them, and ignoring local protocol, perhaps stop the public from visiting them.
Peter
Merlin Peter, sorry for the late reply - I was away in the mountains the last two weeks...
Yes, the Canton Bern is looking for buyers for the castles you mentioned, and also for the beautiful castle Trachselwald. This is the result of a reorganization of the districts - the castles were the seat of the offices of some of the old districts (since the revolution of 1798). Now the Canton has no need to keep them any longer and seems not eager to spend further millions of swiss francs to keep them in good condition. At least in Thun it was the city that had enough money to buy its famous castle from the Canton...
Forgein millionaires are indeed a problem when these objects come on the market. But until now there are many legal bounds for new owners - that they have to keep parts of the castles open to the public and can't change the buildings as they may like. So it is not possible to change a castle like Trachselwald into a private residence which nobody can ever visit (it would be a desaster also for tourism in those areas). This is also the reason why the familiy von Hessen has not found a buyer for the famous castle Tarasp in Graubünden so far. But there were foreign castle-buyers in the past that buyed such castles for representative reasons and then did nothing to maintain them. I don't know if this can be handled in the selling-contracts...
In short: I don't like this trend at all.
Edward Hi,
Thanks for the info.
I suppose it is a worrying trend.
Another item to keep a close eye on.
Peter