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Bargain Travel Europe guide to Europe on a budget for unusual destinations,
holiday travel tips and secret spots missed by travel tours.





MUNOT FORTRESS
Castle of Old Town Schaffhausen at the Falls

Munot Fortress at Schaffhausen Lighting photoThe 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.

Munot Renaissance Tower photoAside 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.

Cannons on Munot Fortress walls photoThe 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.

Turret stairs photoThe 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

Foundations Undercroft Munot Fortress photoThe 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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Munot
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SEE ALSO:

SORELL HOTEL RÜDEN - SCHAFFHAUSEN

NAPOLEON MUSEUM - ARENENBERG

ARBON ON LAKE CONSTANCE

LAKE CONTANCE RHINE CRUISES

FLIGHT MUSEUM ALTENRHEIN-ST GALLEN