Thun - Castle / Historical Museum

(Local Name: Schloss / Historisches Museum) From the Thun Rathausplatz, with the handsome Rathaus (Town Hall: 1589, rebuilt 1685), a covered flight of steps leads up to the castle, whose massive keep with its corner turrets is a prominent landmark of the town. It was built in 1191 by Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen; later it became the seat of the Counts of Kyburg, and in 1492 was enlarged by the addition of an official residence for the chief magistrate of Berne. Since 1888 it has housed the Historical Museum, with arms and armor and 14th and 15th C. tapestries in the large Knights' Hall, prehistoric and Roman materials, furniture and ceramics in the three lower rooms and a collection illustrating 19th C. Swiss military history in the upper hall. From the castle and from the Protestant parish church (rebuilt 1738, with an older tower) on the southeast slopes of the castle hill there is a superb view of Lake Thun and the Alps (the Stockhorn chain, the Niesen and, to the left, the snow-covered Blümlisalp).