Kyburg Castle

Castle - der Schloss

On Saturday, Miriam and I met our friends at the connecting train station and we headed on an outdoor adventure. The weather was lovely. We took a train and then a bus to the castle. It is situated in a sweet little town.  The castle is on the top of a hill overlooking the Töss River. After the castle visit - we took a nice walk through the woods to the river. There we walked along the river until we ended up in a different town and train station to head home.

For those visiting - masks were worn all the time, hand sanitizer everywhere and the number of people allowed in each room were clearly marked. And it is was not very crowded. This was our outdoor selfie and rare moment without masks.

A little read on the history gave me these fun facts from the museum's website and elsewhere:

It is a true fortress with steep inclines on several sides, a moat and watch tower.

Close to the city of Winterthur

first record of it was 1027

Kyburg is the modern spelling. There were several spellings with one of original  "Chuigeburg" being the most common.  I am guessing somewhere there is Swiss German dialect for cows.  As one of the spellings is Kuiburc. Basically, it originally meant cow-fortress.  

Hartmann von Dillingen gained the castle through  marriage and named himself Count von Kyburg

In 1264 Rudolf von Habsburg inherited the castle

According to the museum, the Habsburg's with increasing interest in Austria, turned the castle over to the canton of Zürich, where it was used for tax collection and nobles.

In between the tax collection and museum, the Polish Count von Sobansky lived there.

Now it is a nice sized museum.  Not too big or small.  Perfect size for an afternoon visit.