Switzerland · 12th century
Uster Castle (Swiss German: Schloss Uster also referred to Burg Uster) is a hill castle which was built probably around 1200 AD by the House of Rapperswil in the Swiss municipality of Uster in the Canton of Zürich. Since 1995 it houses a boarding school.
The conspicuous tower of the castle was erected on a roughly 30 m (98 ft) high longish moraine hill between Oberuster and Kirchuster at an elevation of 496 m (1,627 ft) and comprises an area of about 30 metres (98 ft) from west to east and 35 metres (115 ft) from south to north. The castle is located above the Uster church in Kirchuster, a locality of the municipality of Uster in the Canton of Zürich. On its southwestern slope a vineyard is situated, overlooking the Greifensee towards the Pfannenstiel–Forch mountain chain.
From the first construction phase, the lower section of the tower, up to the level of the upper floor of the today's boarding school's building around the tower base, is preserved, but never was scientifically examined, as well as the surrounding area of the plateau. Hence, the castle's history of origins is widely unknown, as well as the castle was never used as a seat of noble family there are just handful sealed documents referring to the castle's history.
The core of the present tower measures about 11.06 metres (36 ft) with about 3.4 metres (11 ft) thick sandstone walls which date back to around 1200 AD when on the hill, immediately behind the church of Uster, a keep was built. Whether the castle to 1267/68, as seen in pictures, consisted only of the tower and a small ring wall, or even the whole castle hill was covered by a castle-like structure, is unknown. In 1492 a fire destroyed the majority of the structures, the residential tower burned out completely, as documented by Johannes Stumpf in his chronicle: Anno domini 1492 verbran das Schloßz zu Ustri in Grund.
Die Bonstetten ließend die ausgebrennten mauren lær ston und bauwtend ein schoen hauß von holtzwerck darnebend, meaning a wooden house was built next to the tower. Furthermore: Batt von Bonstetten initiated after the fire (Turm oben abwerffen und ein schoen geheüß … drauf setzen) to demolish the upper section of the tower plinth and to add a new, probably half-timbered structure. In 1526 the wooden house burned down, and the tower was rebuilt once more to 1529.
Text adapted from “Uster Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Uster Castle ranks #6,511 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #101 of the 213 mapped in Switzerland. Founded c. 1200, it is older than 75% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 763 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. 6 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Winterthur, 17 km away. See how Switzerland compares in the castle statistics.
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