STOCKALPER CASTLE – BRIG
Baroque Palace of Salt and the Simplon Pass
It
is the symbol and pride of Brig, and the largest baroque period schloss
in Switzerland, but neither a castle or really a palace, but more warehouse
and office. The Stockalper Castle was built between 1658 and 1678 by
Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper. The Stockalper name came from an Italian
ancestor from Milan who acquired the rights to a mountain in the Alps
on the Simplon Pass between Italy and the Rhone River Valley of Switzerland.
Kaspar Stockalper was perhaps one of the shrewdest businessman of his
age, like the industrial era barons who followed 200 years later. Engaged
in the family silk trade he later cornered the market for salt in southern
Switzerland, from mines in the BelAlp region above Brig. Where most castles
of the time were built as fortresses or residences of princes and nobles,
Stockalper was neither. As he became fabulously wealthy, he built himself
a palace, but he never really lived in it, preferring to remain in
the comfortable and familiar old family house next door. His castle
was mostly
his office and warehouse.
The
Stockalper castle consists of four floors of rooms in a square form
now used mostly
as
Brig City offices and a large courtyard lined with
arcades. Stockalper mostly used the palace as business offices and the
courtyard as a warehouse to store his goods. The Stockalper Castle was
built with an obvious Italianate influence, feeling more Lombardy Renaissance
than Swiss Baroque, but it’s most distinctive features are the
three high square towers topped by onion domes typical of its era. A
devoutly religious man, 
who
also financed the Jesuit Church which sits on the hill about the castle,
and himself named for one of the three
wise men of the nativity, Stockalper named the three high towers of his
castle after the 3 magi, Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar. The highest,
of course, bore his own namkesake. The domes were
once covered in gold, but no longer. In the courtyard
you'll find examples
of the Post Coaches which once traversed the Alps passes in the 1700's.
precursers to today's Swiss Post Busses, bearing the same yellow colors.
Below the Stockalper Castle, the large garden, once formal baroque,
now serves as a city park, recently renovated after a serious flood in
Brig destroyed much of the original landscaping. The park has a stream
through the center, and is decorated with modern art. Students from the
nearby school gather in the garden below when the sun shines, spreading
out on the grass in the shadow of the palace towers and the Alps peaks.
On the pathway approach to the castle court gate, look for the stone
markers which once marked the miles across the Simplon Pass. Music concerts
are sometimes held in the castle courtyard with the music drifting out
over the garden.
Visiting Brig's Stockalper Castle
Guided
tours are given of the castle interior every day except Mondays from
May
to October,
mostly a look at the Knights Hall on the top floor
which served as a banquet and event hall for the Stockalpers and still
serves that purpose. The hall has paintings some of the Stockalper family,
the man himself and other important historic figures of Brig (see Chateau St Maurice). Most
of the other floors are occupied with the mayor’s and other city
offices. Tours cost 10 Swiss Francs for adults, kids over 7 years 4
Swiss Francs,
under 7
are free. The tours are at specified times, about 6 during the day.
Perhaps
more interesting than the castle tour in the visitor’s
center and ticket office, (just behind the castle) is an exhibit of
the building of the Simplon Pass tunnel, the first tunnel built through
the
high alps between Switzerland and Italy which defined Brig’s
growth and development as a stopover for the famous legendary train
the Simplon
Orient Express, which traversed through the pass on its way from Paris
to Milan and on to Istanbul. Brig is a stop on the rail route from
Milan, with transfers to the Matterhorn-Gotthard rail line to Zermatt
(an hour
from Brig) and the route along Valais serving the main rail lines between
Geneva, Chur and St Moritz, and the Glacier Express (see Scenic
Glacier Express). The Stockalper Castle is easy to get
to with a stopover in Brig, about a five-ten minute walk from main
rail station. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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SEE
ALSO:
3100
KULMHOTEL GORNERGRAT
THE
MATTERHORN - ZERMATT
CHATEAU DE VILLA - WINE TRAIL - SIERRE
FONDATION PIERRE GIANADDA - MARTIGNY
IS SWITZERLAND TRAVEL EXPENSIVE?
