Castle with outbuildings and garden, Medieval hill castle in Uster, Switzerland
Schloss Uster is a hill castle in the district of Uster, canton of Zurich, made up of a main tower, several outbuildings, and a garden. The tower rises about 30 meters (98 feet) above the surrounding town on a natural hill, making it visible from a wide area.
The oldest visible parts of the residential tower date to around 1200; whether the lords of Uster built it is unproven. In 1267 the lords of Bonstetten held Uster as a fief from Rudolf of Habsburg, and in 1407 Johannes von Bonstetten signed a castle-right treaty with Zurich. A fire destroyed the tower in 1492, and another in 1526 hit the wooden house beside it; the complex was rebuilt by 1529 as a castle and occasional seat of Zurich's bailiffs.
Since 1 September 1995 the castle has housed the private Schloss Schule Uster, a boarding school, not a district administration or museum. The school's market garden is maintained privately and can be visited on weekdays, and the Rittersaal is open on Sundays from July to October. The Schlossrestaurant looks out over Uster, the Greifensee and the Pfannenstiel.
The castle sits on a hill at the edge of Uster's old town and can be reached on foot from Uster train station in a short walk. The path up is brief but somewhat steep, so sturdy shoes are a good idea.
The main tower was originally a free-standing residential tower with no direct connection to the other structures on the site. This type of tower, known in German as a Bergfried, was less a place to live in than a last refuge in case of an attack.
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