Muri Castle

Muri Castle is a castle on the Muri Hill in the municipality of Muri bei Bern in the canton of Bern.

Muri belonged to the possessions of the Barons of Montenach zu Belp and came with the territories of the old dominion of Geristein around 1300 to the city of Bern, which formed its first rural territory. The estates in Muri had already been sold by the Montenach family to Interlaken Monastery in 1239.

Muri was built (or rebuilt) for Johann Rudolf von Diesbach, who had been a colonel in France and later bailiff of Lenzburg, and who had acquired large plots of land from various locals between 1650 and 1652. The oldest painting by Kauw (around 1670) shows the typical building of the 16th/17th century with the pointed stair turret, an elongated dependency building with a roof turret and corner turrets in the north.

In 1695, it was acquired by Albrecht von Mülinen and remained in the possession of his descendants until 1758. Then, due to financial difficulties of the then owner family, it was sold to the citizen and butcher Abraham Henggi. He had major alterations carried out, which ultimately exceeded his financial means.

During the revolutionary period, the Count of Artois, later King Charles X of France, the younger brother of Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, lived there, while in neighboring Gümligen the Countesses of Polignac lived as emigrants.

In 1825, the physician Samuel Lehmann acquired the castle, and 24 years later, the banker Ludwig Emanuel von Wagner bought it. He rebuilt and enlarged the building. In 1892, Wagner's widow bequeathed the domain to Louise Fanny and the six children of her deceased second daughter. Louise Fanny, who had been the widow of Jakob Rudolf Ludwig von Ernst since 1870, paid out her co-heirs and bequeathed Muri Castle jointly to her son Armand Heinrich Friedrich and her daughter Louise Katharina Henriette, who left her share to her brother.

In 1938, the son of the previous owner, Alfred Alexander Ludwig Armand von Ernst, became the owner of the castle and then transferred it to his daughter Catherine Stankiewicz-von Ernst in 1980.