Trostburg Castle

Trostburg is a small castle in Teufenthal in the Swiss canton of Aargau. It is located on a 40-meter-high rock outcrop above the village in a side valley of the Wyna and originated from a medieval castle.

The castle of the Lords of Trostburg, first mentioned in 1241, was built during the 12th century. A little later, a branch of the family split off and had Liebegg Castle built barely half a kilometer to the north. The Trostburgers were a ministerial family of the Counts of Kyburg and entered the service of the Habsburgs from 1264.

After the Trostburger family died out, Trostburg came into the possession of the Lords of Rinach in 1346, whose ancestral seat was a few kilometers further south in what is now the municipality of Burg. The Rinachs built up a small dominion in which they exercised lower jurisdiction. This included the present-day municipalities of Teufenthal, Boniswil, Dürrenäsch, Hallwil, Leutwil, and Zetzwil. After the conquest of western Aargau by the city of Bern in 1415, the Lords of Rinach increasingly lost power.

In 1486, Hans von Hallwyl acquired Trostburg. The Lords of Hallwyl then sold it to the city of Brugg in 1616. However, Bern did not tolerate the increase in power of its subject city, seized the sovereign rights, and sold Trostburg to private individuals. Around 1750, the castle was expanded into a residential castle, which is still in private hands today. To this day, Trostburg remains in private ownership, with numerous changes of ownership.