Rümligen Castle

There are many stories about Rümligen Castle. In 1709, the Bernese schoolmaster and general Samuel Frisching (1638-1721) acquired it and had it converted from a castle into a baroque palace. The 70,000-square-meter property has remained closed to the public until now. Now it has new owners. In the course of the change of ownership, we have the honor of auctioning off part of the inventory and in particular the extensive library. The variety of the almost 400 objects is great and ranges from pocket watches to old master paintings and Bernese furniture. A special trouvaille is the rare cabbage lidded tureen by Paul Hannong, made around 1750 in Strasbourg.

The impressive library, in turn, contains quite a few important works. A large part of the books comes from the possession of the long-time lord of the castle Samuel Rudolf Frisching (1746-1809), Bernese dragoon captain and great-grandson of the Bernese Schultheissen Johann Frisching. He owned, among others, the Frisching House and the Campagne Morillon in Bern and the Castle of Rümligen.

His nickname “Alkibiades” is found together with the family coat of arms and a bust on his bookplate engraved by Balthasar Anton Dunker.It is present with the titles that are marked “With bookplate” at the end of the record.

Among the gems of the inventory is the original edition of the famous Diderot Encyclopedia. It comprises 33 volumes with around 72,000 articles and is one of the most important works of the Enlightenment.