Krauchthal

Geschichte

Krauchthal is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.HistoryKrauchthal was first mentioned around 1108-22 as Crouchtal and around 1181-82 as Crochtal. Hettiswil village was first mentioned in 1107 as Otthonis villare and in 1281 it was Ettiswile.The oldest traces of settlements near Krauchthal are neolithic flints which were discovered in Mooshubel and Buech. The wooden posts of a Roman settlement were found on the Thornberg along the remains of a Roman manor on the north side of the valley. During the Middle Ages there were three castles or fortifications, Thorberg Castle, Liebenfels-Sodfluh Castle and the high medieval fortification of Tannstigli, within sight of each other in the modern borders of the municipality. Between 1175 and 1397 Thorberg Castle was home to the Lords of Thorberg. After the death of Peter von Thorberg, in 1397, he left his many estates to the Carthusians who converted the castle into a monastery or chapterhouse. The Carthusians became the largest land holders in Krauchthal. The Krauchthal village church of St. Mauritius was first mentioned in 1270.The Cluniac Priory of Hettiswil was built during the High Middle Ages in the nearby village, but today only the foundation of the romanesque Priory church is visible. The Priory was responsible for a chapel on Sandhubel which was first mentioned in 1560, but no trace of the building exists. The village of Hettiswil and the right to hold the low court in the village were given to the Priory in 1107. In 1406 both the low and high courts in Hettiswil came under Bernese control, though the Priory remained a major landowner.