Lucens Castle is a castle in the municipality

Municipalities of Switzerland

Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 of Lucens

Lucens

Lucens is a municipality in the Broye-Vully district in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.-History:Lucens is first mentioned in 964 as in villa Losingus. It was formerly known by the German name Losingen....

 in the canton

Cantons of Switzerland

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Vaud

Vaud

Vaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the French-speaking southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian , Waadt in German , and Vad in Romansh.-History:Along the lakes,...

 in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance

Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance

The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...

.

History

The castle's strategic location allowed it to control the Broye

Broye

The Broye is a 68 km long river, in the cantons of Fribourg and Vaud, in Switzerland. It has a watershed area of 850 km².-Presentation:...

 valley, which was an important transit corridor. Starting in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 and until 1536 it was a residence of the Bishop of Lausanne

Bishop of Lausanne

The Bishop of Lausanne was a Prince-Bishop of the Holy Roman Empire and the Ordinary of the diocese of Lausanne, Switzerland .Bern secularized the bishopric in 1536....

 and served to control the Bishop's land in the Broye valley. During the 12th Century, the castle was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. In 1476, it was destroyed by the Swiss Confederation

Old Swiss Confederacy

The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland....

. In 1536 the valley and the surrounding territory were conquered by Bern. It became the seat of a Bernese bailiwick

Bailiwick

A bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...

 at the same time. In 1542, the vogt

Vogt

A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...

 of Moudon moved into the castle. It was enlarged between 1579-86 and served as an arsenal and fortress on the border to Fribourg

Canton of Fribourg

The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country. The capital of the canton is Fribourg. The name Fribourg is French, whereas is the German name for both the canton and the town.-History:...

. In 1798, the Bernese were forced out and the Canton of Léman

Canton of Léman

Léman was the name of a canton of the Helvetic Republic from 1798 to 1803, corresponding to the territory of modern Vaud. As a former subject territory of Bern, Vaud had been independent for only four months in 1798 as the Lemanic Republic before it was incorporated in the centralist Helvetic...

 was formed. Shortly thereafter, the castle became the property of Canton, who sold it 1801 to private individuals. In 1925, it was converted into a Swiss Reformed

Swiss Reformed Church

The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...

institute for girls. Between 1965-70, it was the seat of the Conan Doyle Foundation, and is now in private hands.

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