MUNOT FORTRESS
Castle of Old Town Schaffhausen at the Falls
The
Fortress of Munot has dominated the skyline over the old town of Schaffhausen
for well over 400 years. The city is protected grew from
the trade route along the Rhine River where it departs Lake Constance
and tumbles over the Rhine Falls. Trading boats couldn’t pass over
the falls and needed to unload cargo and cart it down to the lower part
of the river beyond the falls to carry onward down the river (see Follow
the Rhine by Rail). The old town of Schaffhausen is a medieval town of
half-timber and narrow streets. The earliest presence of a castle on
a round hill above the river goes back to 1379, but not much is known
about the earlier fort. The castle seen today dates in the 16th Century
at the height of the city’s commercial power, built in a relatively
short time between 1564 and 1589. The castle name comes from the middle
high German “Annot” meaning without danger, transformed into
Munot.
Aside
from protection a principal duty of the fortress was spotting arriving
ships on the river below from the high towers, or sounding the
alarm when fire broke out somewhere in the city, a fairly common occurrence.
The names of the Munot guards are still recorded as it was apparently
a fairly proud duty. With the entrance of Schaffhausen into the Swiss
Confederation following the Swabian War of 1499 the town council began
to consider improving the city defenses, through with the roiling conflicts
of the first half of the 16th Century wrought by the Reformation sweeping
Europe especially the Peasant’s Rebellion of Swabia (see Black
Forest Fools Tower), a rebuilding plan was approved
until 1563. The circular design of the fortress was influenced by the
treatise
on
fortifications
noted
by Albrecht Durer.
The
old castle was pulled down at the same time the new one was being built.
Yet, even with its quick construction time,
with the advance of artillery the castle was nearly obsolete as soon
as it was completed. The town was fortunately spared during the Thirty
Years War which devastated many others in the 1600s. In 1799, the Munot
Fortress was occupied by an army for the first and only time in its
history, when French forces took up a position to fire on advancing
Austrian troops,
but quickly abandoned the fort and the town, burning the distinctive
wooden bridge across the river. A model of the old bridge and scenes
from the past can be seen in the Museum Zu Allerheiligen in the city.
The
Munot Fortress was never a residence and its short useful life means
it remains nearly exactly as it was built, a relatively pure castle of
the Renaissance. Its most distinctive features ar the cavernous camponiere
galleries in the foundation, upon entering the castle from below, and
walking the winding stone path up the turret. A single large round
tower rises from the open stone upper platform with
views
out to the Rhine past the Roman Turret, which takes its name from its
style, rather than from its period, and the surrounding Emmersberg hills.
Fallow Deer were introduced to the fortress moat in 1905, and can still
be viewed grazing happily undisturbed on the grass below the stone walls.
Visiting the Munot Fortress
The
Munot Fortress of Schaffhausen is one of the city’s tourist
landmarks and the site of many city festivals and events, including a
children’s festival and open air cinema shows. Regular opening
hours are 8am to 6pm from may to September and 9am to 5pm October to
April. It is free to visit and easily reachable by foot from the center
of the old town, or from the dock where the cruise boats dock. The Rhine
Falls cannot be seen from the fortress, but are a short bus ride away
(see Rhine Falls Schaffhausen). © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Web Info
Munot
(in German)
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SEE ALSO:
SORELL HOTEL RÜDEN - SCHAFFHAUSEN
NAPOLEON
MUSEUM - ARENENBERG
ARBON
ON LAKE CONSTANCE
FLIGHT MUSEUM ALTENRHEIN-ST GALLEN
