Last time, I promised to show you around a castle that we've visited in Zug last week, so let's do it! I honestly thought that we visited all castles in German speaking Switzerland already, but it looks like I was mistaken. I had no idea that there was a castle in Zug, so it was a nice surprise when we walked by, and we spontaneously decided to go inside as it was open. Now I wonder how many castles are still waiting for our visit!
The castle is located on a hill, but you can't see it from the lake as it's so small and the buildings in front of it keep it hidden. It's surrounded by tall defensive walls, and there is a small courtyard in front of it from where you can see many important landmarks of Zug. The castle dates back to the 12th century and it was extensively restored at the end of the last century. Today, it hosts a historical museum that we will visit in a bit, but let's look around the courtyard first!
The first landmark that you notice is the impressive Church of St. Oswald. The church dates back to the 15th century, and it was one of the most beautiful sacral constructions of its time.
Here we can see the Kunsthaus of Zug displaying artwork of national and international importance, but focussing on Switzerland and its neighbouring countries. It looks a but like our house, just 5 times bigger 😊
Behind the Kunsthaus is The Huwilerturm which is part of the extended fortification of Zug from the 16th century. The city prospered and grew at that time, so it required new, larger fortification with several defensive towers along the walls.
On the right is The Burgbachsaal which is a beautiful building used for various events organized by the city. Other buildings do not have much of an importance other than their historical value and beauty.
You can't walk around the castle, so this is the last view that we saw before heading to the museum. We were welcomed by a kind lady at the reception who explained to us what we will see in the castle.
The entrance fee is 12 CHF per person which we normally wouldn't have to pay because of our museum cards that allow us free entry to all museums in Switzerland, but as we didn't realize it recently expired and needed to be renewed we had to pay for the tickets that time.
Let's go inside!
There are 4 floors that you can visit.
We started our tour in the room dedicated to the last owner of the castle, The Hediger family. It is preserved in its original conditions. It was furnished in the 19th century, and everything including the wall panelling and the stove is original. This stove is known across the country thanks to its beautiful paintings. It's an electric stove, so the owners didn't have to worry about ashes and dust.
The blue wallpaper gave this room its name: The Blue room. It's not very original, but it is what it is. The furniture in this room comes originally from the houses across Zug. The room is spacious which was uncommon for that time and it shows how well the higher society used to live in comparison to the common people.
The wallpapers were expensive and made rooms look luxurious. Here we can see some moulds that were used to create various patterns.
The stove in the blue room is surprisingly blue 😊 It was built in 1650 and restored multiple times over the centuries. There are stairs and a seat on the left side of the stove. I think that you could sit there and enjoy the warmth. I remember that my grandma once told me that they had a similar stove (not so fancy of course) with a small platform behind the stove where you could lay down in the winter months when it was cold in the house. She loved that spot.
The comfortable lifestyle of the former owners can not only be seen in the design of the rooms, but also in the amount of windows in each rooms. Castles didn't usually have many windows to keep the cold out, but here they didn't have to worry about the heating costs.
The room was also used for game evenings and we could admire some very old card sets.
This collection started as a simple gift from a husband to his wife in form of a salt and pepper shakers. It grew quickly to a collection of over 500 pieces of porcelain shoes from all around the world. The family donated the collection to the museum in 2013. I'm a big fan of Delft Blue, and I was happy to spot a few pieces from their collections.
Next room that we will visit is called The study room even though it was used to showcase bizarre collections and it was called The chamber of curiosities.
Many wealthy families in the past used to create a room where they would place various things from their travels. Usually, it would be strange things such as stuffed animal, fossils, corrals or whatever they considered exotic and worthy of showing off to their friends. Normally, I walk through such rooms as quickly as possible...
This is my favourite room in the castle. It was built in the 18th century when the castle was owned by Franz Fidel Landwing who returned from his army service in France. He built this room to honour France which he loved. It's very different to other rooms in the castle and it indeed reminds you of French palaces.
High ceiling, beautiful wooden floor, painted walls and golden details - what a gem!
I have noticed that each painting on the doors is different...
Even the doorknobs are decorated...
Another detail that I admired in the castle are its stained glass windows. There are so many of them, and all of them are created with great attention to detail and deep colours.
The pharmacy owned by the family Luthiger for 170 years was closed in the 90s. The last owner donated all the equipment and inventory that was left at the pharmacy. The museum has created a replica of the pharmacy with all the items that they received.
There was a cash register, a scale, or many jars, glasses, and tins that used to hold medicaments or herbs. It was all nicely arranged which created an illusion of being in a real pharmacy centuries ago.
They sold other items too. There was coffee, mustard, soap, sponges, etc. I have noticed old packages of world known brands today.
I like this branding much better than the purple cow that we see on their products today.
In the hall, we noticed original paintings on the wood panelling showing coats of arms.
There were some musical instruments too...
Similar to the pharmacy, there was a Shoemaker workshop too. These are all original tools and pieces of a shoemaker who dedicated 60 years of his life to this craft.
It was interesting to walk around the workshop and listen to his story at the same time...
The city model shows what Zug looked like around 1730. It's an interactive model with a screen where you could find various stories about the city over the years.
There was even Zug at night! 😊
The last part of the museum was the collection of sacral items. This should symbolize the interior of a church...
There were old valuable wooden altars...
And some items are almost 700 years old such as this wooden sculpture. I was trying to figure out if it's made out of wood, so I was really close to the ear of the donkey looking at the material. My husband was for some reason looking at its behind from really close too. Suddenly, the alarm went off! The security guy rushed in our way and we had not idea what was happening. Luckily, he turned it off immediately and told us that in the past there were kids climbing up the sculpture, so they had to do something about it and the alarm was activated because we got in its range. Well...
We've enjoyed our tour and learned not to lean too close to the objects 😊 It was a good day!
See you next time..