The
Baroque castle was built between 1682 and 1686 as a summer house for the
Schultheiss Johann Viktor P. Joseph von Besenval (1638–1713) and his wife Maria Margaritha, née von Sury (1649–1713). Over time, the Waldegg Castle, together with the
Palais Besenval, developed into one of the main residences of the family von Besenval.
House of Besenval: The rise of a family . The family Besenval was originally from
Torgnon in the
Aosta Valley. They had risen socially in the service of King
Louis XIV and had received a title of
baron (Reichsfreiherr) of the
Holy Roman Empire from Emperor
Leopold I in 1695. Furthermore, already in February 1655, Martin von Besenval (1600–1660), Johann Viktor P. Joseph's father, was ennobled by King
Louis XIV and raised to
knighthood in 1658 in gratitude for his merit for the French Crown. And on 11 August 1726, King
Louis XV elevated the von Besenval family's possession of
Brunstatt in the
Alsace to a French
barony. The culmination of the family's ennoblement was the elevation of Martin Louis de Besenval (1780–1853) to the rank of
comte by King
Charles X on 18 March 1830. The
letters of nobility extended to his descendants. Some members of the family also adopted the French spelling of the name,
de Besenval. However, the Besenvals' loyalty to the French Crown was also rewarded financially, as reflected in a remark by the French ambassador in Solothurn in 1709 that later became legendary: The French money was a welcome financial boost for the construction of the Waldegg Castle. The Besenvals became rich through the salt trade and the
mercenary business with France. A mechanism that was common among mercenary patricians soon set in: Because the Besenvals had influence in their own town, they became important for foreign powers – and because they were valued abroad, their power in turn grew in their own town.
Johann Viktor von Besenval (1720). Johann Viktor P. Joseph's son
Johann Viktor, Baron von Besenval von Brunstatt, was a diplomat and colonel in the regiment of the
Swiss Guards of France. After he inherited the Waldegg Castle in 1713, he had it renovated. Furthermore, he added a theater, commissioned in 1722 and completed in 1736, and a chapel, the
Chapel of Saint Michael, commissioned in 1729 and decorated in the current French style, to the castle. He brought numerous works of art back with him from France.
Palais Besenval Johann Viktor von Besenval and his brother Peter Joseph (1675–1736) commissioned the construction of the
Palais Besenval in Solothurn in 1703.
A wedding warmly welcomed by the French Crown of the families de Besenval (quartered shield) and Bielińska. The Barony of
Brunstatt is represented by the horseshoe. The silver doe stands for
Riedisheim and the silver mermaid for
Didenheim, the two other estates of the family de Besenval in the
Alsace. Engraving by
Ricardo de los Ríos. On 18 September 1716, Johann Viktor married Katarzyna Bielińska (1684–1761), daughter of
Kazimierz Ludwik Bieliński, a Polish noble, politician and diplomat. She was also the sister of
Maria Magdalena Bielińska, div. Gräfin von
Dönhoff, who was the
Maîtresse-en-titre of King
Augustus II the Strong. A marriage warmly welcomed by
Philippe II de Bourbon, Duc d'Orléans,
Régent de France between 1715 and 1723, given that Johann Viktor von Besenval was serving as French ambassador to Poland at the time.
Death in Paris and a funerary monument by Jacques Caffieri Johann Viktor von Besenval died on 11 March 1736 in his
hôtel particulier on the Rue de Varenne in Paris. His funeral took place in the church of
Saint-Sulpice, where he was also buried. His funerary monument in the church featured a bust relief made by
Jacques Caffieri in 1737. During the
French Revolution, his monument, along with those of other representatives of the
Ancien Régime, was destroyed. However, an engraving of the monument survives in the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Peter Viktor von Besenval and his heirs '' at the
Hôtel de Besenval, by
Henri-Pierre Danloux (1791). This portrait of Peter Viktor von Besenval is now on display in the
National Gallery. Johann Viktor's son
Peter Viktor, Baron von Besenval von Brunstatt, a Swiss military officer in French service, was born at the Waldegg Castle in 1721. When his father died in 1736, he inherited the Waldegg Castle. However, he lived most of his life in France, where he was known as
Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, and where, in 1767, he bought the
Hôtel Chanac de Pompaodur and made it his residence in Paris. Today the
hôtel particulier is known as
Hôtel de Besenval. It has housed the
Embassy of the
Swiss Confederation and the residence of the
Swiss ambassador to France since 1938. Peter Viktor rarely stayed in Switzerland anymore. The center of his life was in Paris. Due to his absence, he left the use of the Waldegg Castle to his cousin Johann Viktor Peter Joseph von Besenval (1742–1786) and his wife Maria Anna Margrit, née von Roll (1741–1814). Although he wasn't often in Switzerland, Peter Viktor did add an
orangery, the
Pomeranzen-Hause, to the castle in 1780.
The French Revolution: The beginning of the end of an era The
French Revolution of 1789 was disastrous to the family's influence, business interests and wealth. Although all the family members survived the terror of the French Revolution, their close ties to the French royal family and other high-ranking members of the
Ancien Régime made life more and more difficult for them in France.
Death in Paris without a legitimate heir (1820). The portrait is on display in the
Nationalmuseum. After the death of Peter Viktor von Besenval in 1791, who was in fact not childless but had no legitimate heir, the Waldegg Castle, which was a
Fidéicommis and could therefore only be passed on in the immediate family, went to the firstborn son of his cousin Johann Viktor Peter Joseph, the minor Ours Joseph Augustin von Besenval (1777–1831). It would later fall to Ours Joseph Augustin von Besenval to handle the increasingly precarious financial circumstances of the family von Besenval after the French Revolution, which led to the loss of their once considerable French income. Years later, on 18 October 1830, the precarious financial situation led to Ours Joseph von Besenval marrying his only daughter and universal heir Marie Louise Emélie (1804–1838) to her first cousin Amédée de Besenval (1809–1899). Amédée was the eldest son of Ours Joseph von Besenval's brother Martin Louis de Besenval, first
Comte de Besenval (1780–1853), and Anne Caroline, née von Roll (1786–1829). In order to avoid dispersal of the family heritage, marriages between cousins often occurred within the family von Besenval, but these led to a weakening of the line of descent due to excessive consanguinity. The result was increasing signs of degeneration.
The sale of the baron's furniture to the Swiss Confederation from the Waldegg Castle in 1938: One of the six chairs from the Baron de Besenval's original furniture ensemble is visible in the window niche in the
Salon de la tapisserie. On 19 May 1938, the
Swiss Confederation purchased the
Hôtel de Besenval in Paris as the country's new legation building. In the same year, the Swiss Government bought from the
patrician family von Sury, the then owners of the Waldegg Castle, a sofa and six chairs, covered in beige fabric and embroidered with scenes from the fables of
Jean de La Fontaine, except for the sofa, which is covered with a pattern of flowers and birds. According to oral tradition, the sofa and the six chairs once belonged to Peter Viktor von Besenval and were part of the furnishings of the Hôtel de Besenval. It is said that the baron sent these pieces of furniture, along with other pieces of furniture and works of art, to Switzerland shortly before the French Revolution. In a photo from the 1920s, the six chairs are placed in the
Salon de Besenval at the Waldegg Castle. Today the furniture ensemble is on display at the Hôtel de Besenval in the
Salon de la tapisserie. The entire furnishings that remained at the Hôtel de Besenval after the baron's death in 1791 were auctioned in Paris on 10 August 1795. Therefore only the pieces that the baron had sent to Switzerland, to the Waldegg Castle, before the French Revolution, or pieces that he left to his family in Solothurn in his will, such as family portraits, remained in the family's possession. However, these were only a few pieces, mostly with a family connection. His son
Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur, also kept some pieces of furniture in memory of his father, as well as his father's portrait, painted by
Henri-Pierre Danloux in 1791. In his will dated 18 May 1804, the Vicomte de Ségur bequeathed the remaining furniture of the Baron de Besenval to his partner and mother of his son, Alexandre Joseph de Ségur (1793–1864), Reine Claude de Mesmes d'Avaux, Comtesse d'Avaux, née Chartraire de Bourbonne, Dame de Bourbonne-les-Bains (1764–1812).
The Federal Council's plans for the field fortifications at the Waldegg Castle was not amused with the attitude of the government of the city of Solothurn. In order to protect the entire region, he wanted to convert the Waldegg Castle into a
fortress. In the 1850s, the
Swiss Federal Council, especially Federal Councillor
Ulrich Ochsenbein, was seriously concerned about the defense capability of the Solothurn region, because the city set about demolishing its old 18th-century fortifications. This prompted Ulrich Ochsenbein to reprimand the city authorities, which, however, did not impress them at all. The demolition of the old fortifications continued. This in turn prompted Federal Councillor Ulrich Ochsenbein, after consulting General
Guillaume Henri Dufour, to demand the restoration of the old fortifications or to build new field fortifications, including in the area of the Waldegg Castle. Accordingly, the corresponding plans were drawn up on behalf of the Federal Council. The new owner of the Waldegg Castle had it renovated and added two
apartments. Furthermore, he changed the
Baroque garden into an
English landscape garden. However, the alterations to the garden were reversed during subsequent renovations in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The historic Baroque garden with its obelisks and figures was reconstructed. ==Architecture: The castle and its surroundings==