Lenzburg, Aargau
THE LOWDOWN
Lenzburg is one of the oldest hilltop castles in the whole country, with the earliest parts dating back to around 1100 when the Counts of Lenzburg built it as their seat — though the hill itself was already being used by people way back in prehistoric times, with a Neolithic gravesite even turning up in the car park in 1959. Not bad for a parking lot.
ROUND THE CASTLE
The castle bounced between some seriously heavyweight owners over the next thousand years: the Counts of Kyburg by marriage, then the Habsburgs, who added the Knights’ Hall around 1340, then Bernese bailiffs after 1444. But my favourite chapter is much more recent — in 1872 the Wedekind family bought the place, and their son Frank grew up here before becoming a famous (and rather scandalous) German playwright. Then in 1893 it was bought by an American, Augustus Jessup, whose wife was related to the British royal family, and by 1911 it belonged to James Ellsworth, father of the polar explorer Lincoln Ellsworth. So this one Swiss hilltop has hosted counts, bailiffs, a scandalous poet and polar explorer royalty, all within a thousand years.
THE LITTLE TITBIT
Local legend says the castle was built directly on top of an old dragon’s lair, and people swear the place is haunted — a bell that rings for no one, and the ghost of a grieving maid who wanders by the well in the dead of night. The castle even keeps its own dragon mascot to this day, called Fauchi.
