Regensberg Castle

Geschichte

Regensberg Castle is a hill castle which was built about the mid-13th century AD by the House of Regensberg in the Swiss municipality of Regensberg in the Canton of Zürich.GeographyThe remains of the castle – the so-called 21m Rundturm and the former Palas – are located on the western ridge of the Lägern mountain chain 617m overlocking the lower Glatt Valley respectively Dielsdorf District at about 400m. The small town of Regensberg was founded as a hilltop fortified settlement: The so-called Oberburg is the location of the castle and the inner town which is surrounded by a town wall. The Oberburg or Oberstadt fortifications include also the 57m deep water well. The so-called Unterstadt was built outside of the town walls.Architecture and points of interestOberburg und UnterburgRegensberg was designed as a fortified castle town and built by then modern contemporary criteria. The so-called upper castle (Oberburg) comprises a rectangular plaza as main square which is surrounded two rows of houses, and into the limestone a 57m deep water well was carved. The lower castle (Unterburg) or lower town (Unterstadt) was probably built in the 14th century nestled at the castle's hill outside of the town wall. Therefore, it was not involved in the modernization of the upper castle in 1689.RundturmThe round tower is the only remnant of the mid-12th-century castle and is largely in its original state of construction. Atypical for the north-eastern Switzerland, it was built as a five-storey keep made of local limestone, with a wall thickness of 3m and a diameter of 9m at its basement. The unique architectural design as round tower is presumably a reminiscence by Lütold V to his wife noblewomen Berta de Neuchâtel; in her native western Switzerland round towers then were disseminated.