Picturesque Tour through the Oberland; index
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CASTLE OF SPIEZ.
The traveller, proceeding from Thun to Unterseen, has the choice of three ways: for the pedestrian, a foot-way runs along the north side of the lake of Thun, over the Beatenberg; others, who prefer riding on horseback, will find a road on the south shore through Spiez and Leissingen; while those who would avoid the fatigue of those methods of travelling, may either avail themselves of the passage-boats, which sail twice a week from Thun for Unterseen and Brienz, or may perform the voyage in a vessel hired for the purpose. The latter method, of course, affords conveniences superior to any of the others.
The first objects which present themselves to the view of the traveller after quitting Thun, are, the village of Scherzlingen, and just beyond it the castle of Schadau, on the south bank of the Aar, which here issues from the lake of Thun. The church of the former is of very high antiquity. Schadau, a mansion, flanked with two turrets, commands a prospect of exquisite beauty.
The lake, which now opens upon the view, was called in the seventh century Lacus Vandalicus, or the Lake of the Vandals. Its surface is 1780 feet above that of the sea. This beautiful lake is from four to five leagues in length, one broad, upwards of 700 feet deep between Leissingen and the point called the Nase (Nose or Ness), and abounds in fish. Among these, the salmo marena, the same fish as the fera of the lake of Geneva, is considered as the greatest delicacy: it was formerly caught in great quantity in the vicinity of Unterseen, but since the river Kander has been conducted into the lake, it has become very rare.
The whole of the north shore is covered with mountains, but half <23> of the south bank is tolerably level. On entering the lake, the tourist perceives on the right, the villages of Einigen and Spiez; behind which, to the south, rises the Niesen in all its beauty, having at its foot the castle of Wimmis, at the entrance into the Simmenthal. To the west of it appear the Simmenfluh, and the Stockhorn and its range; still farther west, the Längenberg; which runs away towards Berne; before Einigen the impetuous Kander discharges itself into the lake, and near it are seen the remains of the castle of Strättlingen. South-eastward of the Niesen are the entrance into the Kanderthal, and a beautiful fertile hill, upon which stands the village of Aeschi, and at the foot of which lie Faulensee, Kratigen, and Leissigen. Beyond these mountains rise the gradually more and more elevated ranges of the Alps, while the Jungfrau, the Mönch, the Eiger, and the Blümlis Alp, tower in gigantic grandeur above them all.
Strättlingen, the ruins only of which yet remain, was a castle of great antiquity, belonging to a family of that name. One of these lords of Strättlingen, named Rudolph, founded, in 888, the last kingdom of Burgundy, which was governed by his descendant still their extinction in the 11th century. This place was Rudolph's favourite residence, with the ruins of which vast subterraneous passages communicate. At a small distance from Strättlingen, the river Kander discharges itself into the lake. It formerly emptied itself into the Aar, and frequently inundated the plain of Thun. To put an end to the devastations of this impetuous mountain torrent, the government of Berne caused a new bed to be cut for it through a hill, which conducts its waters directly to the lake. The apprehensions at first entertained that the level of the lake would be raised by the discharge of this stream into its basin, have not been realized; though, since the new channel was dug, the river has carried into it such a quantity of sand and rubbish, as to form several hundred acres of fresh land at its mouth. This torrent comes from the environs of the Gemmi, flowing through the valleys of Kandersteg and Frutigen. Not far from its influx into the lake, is the village of Einigen, the remnant of a place once much more considerable.
The hills, which run along the south side of the lake from the bridge over the Kander to beyond the village of Aeschi, and which in many parts of Europe would be important enough for mountains, serve only as a sub-basement to the Niesen, which, in various parts of the environs of the lake, and especially between the Kander and the village of Mühlinen, presents the figure of a regular pyramid, the summit of which is elevated 5564, feet above the lake of Thun, and 7340 above the sea.
Spiez was formerly a town, as is evident from the vestiges of its walls,
the names of its streets, and of the houses of the gentry resident there,
and the list of its avoyers, bailiffs, or chief magistrates, to a period
not very remote from our times. Mention is made in the chronicles of the magnificence
of its court, called Goldener Hof, or the golden court. 
The
building seen in the annexed engraving, at the entrance of a kind of bay,
which the lake here forms, is the castle of Spiez, the ancient hereditary
demesne of the family of Bubenberg, which contributed so much to the foundation
and aggrandizement of the republic of Berne. The only son and daughter of
the last of this family were married to a lady of the house of Erlach and
her brother, and going on their wedding-day on a party of pleasure upon the
lake of Thun, they were overtaken by a sudden storm, and perished in its waters.
For three centuries past, Spiez has been the property of the not less illustrious
house of Erlach. Equally eminent in the council and in the field, this family,
after having assisted in founding the republic of Berne, twice saved it from
destruction, and gave to it seven chief magistrates. It was to a descendant
of this house, that Berne, in our own times, committed its defence, when the
French Directory announced the project of overturning its government.---Less
fortunate than his ancestors, he had to contend <25> with too unequal
a force, and fell a victim to the stupid ferocity of the soldiers whom he
commanded. To perish by the hands of misguided countrymen, transformed into
cowardly assassins, is a horrible death; otherwise we might congratulate him,
on not having lived to see foreigners the masters of that proud and heretofore
unconquered city, which the Erlachs had contributed to found, and whose prosperity
they had consolidated with their blood. One of the last lords of Spiez was
bailiff of Lausanne, and well known in France for the generosity with which
he received the emigrant nobility.
The house of Erlach partly owed its opulence to the gratitude of its fellow-citizens, and partly derived it, like other illustrious families of Switzerland, from foreign service. The favours of the King of France, to whom Louis von Erlach rendered important services during the wars in the Milanese, furnished it with the means of purchasing Spiez and some other estates of the house of Bubenberg.
Behind the castle rises a hill, which shelters it on the north. Opposite to it, on the other side of the lake, appears a ridge of rocks, called the Rücken, or Wandfluh, which terminates in a point, named the Nase (Nose or Ness.) The Wandfluh and the Ralligfluh, two abrupt ranges of rocks running in nearly parallel directions, form, to the south-west, the last ramifications of Mount Pilate, which extends between the canton of Unterwalden, the Entlibuch, the Emmenthal, and the lake of Brientz. At the foot of these rocks are seen the ruins of the castle of Ralligen, and a little farther on, the village of Merligen. The mountains represented at the eastern extremity of the lake, are, on the right, the Abendberg; above it, the rounded ridge of the Suleck, and the rocks bordering the valley of Zweylütschinen and the south side of the lake of Brientz. In the distance appear the ice-clad summits of the mountains of the principal chain. <26> The crest of the Abendberg is called also Leissiger-Grat, from the village of Leissigen, which is perceived at its foot.
The situation of Leissigen is highly romantic. At this place there are sulphureous springs, and a bathing-house. One of these springs rises in the middle of the bathing-house, scarcely six feet above the level of the lake; the water has a very strong smell and taste, and deposits a white powder when left to stand in open vessels. The water of this spring is heated for the use of the bath. The second is one hundred and fifty paces distant from the former, and is preferred for drinking. It has always a milky appearance and a strong smell of sulphur. The third spring, called the Lammbadli, is a league higher up the mountain, where in a shed are placed six or eight receptacles for bathers, and a caldron for heating the water. Into one of these receptacles, which are scarcely large enough to hold a single person, two will sometimes squeeze themselves, and here they may bathe as long as they please for a batzen, about three half-pence in English money. This extremely low price occasions a great resort of country-people to the spot. These sulphureous springs issue from strata of gypsum. At Darligen, a little eastward of Leissigen, there is a spring close to the lake, from the water of which an inhabitant of that village is said to have extracted Glauber's salt.
