Schloss Ebenrain
Encyclopedia
Sissach
Sissach is a municipality and the capital of the district of Sissach in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.-Geography:Sissach has an area, , of . Of this area, or 28.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 46.6% is forested...
, in the canton of Basel-Country
Basel-Country
Basel-Landschaft , is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland. The capital is Liestal...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Built in 1774-1776, it is considered the most significant late baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
residence in northwestern Switzerland. It is now a public facility and the site of an agricultural school. It is listed as a Swiss cultural property of national significance
Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...
.
History
Schloss Ebenrain was built as a summer residence for the wealthy BaselBasel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
silk ribbon manufacturer and trader Martin Bachofen and his family. The Basel architect Samuel Werenfels
Samuel Werenfels (Architect)
Samuel Werenfels was a famous Swiss Baroque architect.-Early life:Samuel Werenfels, son of Peter Werenfels and Catharina Socin, grew up in Basel. He was grandnephew and godson of the likewise named Swiss theologian Samuel Werenfels...
designed the building. Bachofen intended at first to build a modest country residence, but changed his plans and built a luxurious estate. The gardens to the north and south of the residence were designed by Berne
Berne
The city of Bern or Berne is the Bundesstadt of Switzerland, and, with a population of , the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 43 municipalities, has a population of 349,000. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000...
se architect Niklaus Sprüngli. Both gardens were converted to fashionable English parks
English garden
The English garden, also called English landscape park , is a style of Landscape garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical Garden à la française of the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe. The...
in the early 19th century, but one landscape feature, namely the parallel rows of lindens
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...
lining the drive to the house, has remained essentially unchanged to the present day.
Elite Basel families typically stayed in the country from May to September, but Bachofen often extended his stays at Ebenrain until the end of hunting season in January or February. Bachofen died in 1814, and in 1817 his widow, Margaretha, sold Schloss Ebenrain to another Basel merchant, Johann Rudolf Ryhiner-Streckeisen. Seven years later the estate's new owner committed suicide at Ebenrain. Ryhiner was facing charges of bigamy, and on 29 July 1824 he took his own life with a pistol.
In 1836 Ryhiner's widow sold Schloss Ebenrain to Ludwig Vest, a businessman from Liestal
Liestal
Liestal is the capital of the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland, south of Basel.It is an industrial town with a cobbled-street Old Town.-History:...
. In 1838 Vest transferred the estate to Lukas Vischer
Lukas Vischer (collector)
Lukas Vischer was an amateur artist, traveler, and collector from Basel, Switzerland. During a nine-year residence in Mexico he assembled a notable collection of ancient Mexican sculptures and ceramics. Vischer's collection eventually formed a significant part of the holdings of the Museum of...
, an art collector from Basel who had just returned from several years' residence in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Vischer died at Ebenrain in December 1840.
In 1849 the Vischer family sold Schloss Ebenrain to a Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n military officer, Major Leopold von Orlich, who sold it the following year to Ernst Wilhelm Wilding, Prince Radali of Sicily. In 1857 Johannes David-Sickeler of Basel acquired it, and in 1860 it went to Charles Philibert Gobat, former minister of Tramelan
Tramelan
Tramelan is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura .-Geography:...
in the Canton of Berne
Canton of Berne
The Canton of Bern is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. Located in west-central Switzerland, it borders the Canton of Jura and the Canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the Canton of Neuchâtel, the Canton of Fribourg and Vaud. To the south...
. Gobat, who had a large family, was in financial difficulties by March 1872, when he sold the estate to Albert Hübner-Allan from Mühlhausen
Mühlhausen
Mühlhausen is a city in the federal state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Unstrut-Hainich district, and lies along the river Unstrut. Mühlhausen had c. 37,000 inhabitants in 2006.-History:...
. Hübner was a Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
textile merchant who had settled in the border province of Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
but decided to leave after the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
, when the province went to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Hübner made several significant changes to Ebenrain, adding tracts of land to the estate and hiring landscape architect Edouard André to transform Ebenrain's surroundings and add outbuildings, most of which are now dismantled. Hübner altered and expanded the house to suit the Second Empire style, changed the interior, and had the exterior painted beige. He hired an Alsatian farm manager and expanded the farming operation at Ebenrain.
Hübner died in 1890. Upon his widow's death in 1911 the estate passed to the couple's oldest daughter, Marie Eugénie Catherine, wife of the French vice admiral and diplomat Charles Philippe Touchard. In 1930 Touchard died at Ebenrain. His heirs promptly sold the estate to a Basel merchant, Rudolf Staechelin-Finkbeiner, who renovated the house and used it to display his acclaimed collection of modern French paintings. Staechelin himself took up residence in an outbuilding.
Both the Touchards and Staechelin had taken steps to remove some of Hübner's innovations and restore Ebenrain's baroque character. The exterior walls went from beige back to blue-gray. Staechelin devoted nine years to a comprehensive renovation, but he made no structural changes to the house.
After Staechelin suffered a stroke in 1946, his son, Peter Gregor Staechelin, offered to sell Schloss Ebenrain to the Canton of Basel-Country. Since 1951 Schloss Ebenrain has belonged to the cantonal government and has been used occasionally for public art exhibitions, concerts, and other functions.
In 1956 the cantonal government founded an agricultural school, Landwirtschaftliches Zentrum Ebenrain, on the estate.
Since the elevation of a highway in 1967, Schloss Ebenrain and its park appear to be cut off from the town of Sissach. The residence is still accessible on foot or by bicycle, however, and the route from the Sissach train station to Ebenrain is marked by signposts.
For decades the cantonal government confined its restoration efforts to furnishing the interior appropriately. Finally between 1986 and 1989 both the interior and exterior of the residence were restored to their baroque character. At the same time, the top (roof-level) floor was converted to a large exhibition room, the cellar was expanded, and the entire house was made accessible by wheelchair.
External links
- Kunstführer: Schloss Ebenrain in Sissach (German)
- Ebenrain.ch, website of present-day institutions housed at Schloss Ebenrain (German)