Sissach and its Dynasties and Castles

20 March 2024

Sissach (canton Basel-Landschaft) on the Diegterbach is a village with a Celtic and Roman past. The oldest church in Sissach was built around 620, during the period of Merovingian rule. These Christian Franks were the successors of the pagan Alemanni.

The Diegterbach

Graves from this era have also been found. After the Merovingians came successively, the Carolingians, the Second Burgundian Kingdom (888-1032), the Holy Roman Empire, and regional and local rulers.

The present-day reformed church 

The village appears for the first time in documents under the name Sissaho in 1226. It was an important regional centre because of its location on the traffic routes to the passes of the Schaffmatt and the Unterer Hauenstein.

For this reason, the dynasties of the Eptinger, Homberger, Frohburger, Thiersteiner and Habsburger, as well as the Schöntal monastery, owned land and castles in this area for centuries, including the (vanished) castles of Burgenrain, Sissacher Fluh and Bischofstein. Bischofstein was built by the Eptinger around 1250.

However, the 1356 earthquake destroyed this complex, which was not inhabited afterwards. The City of Basel acquired the area, including Sissach, in 1456. Sissach followed Basel in the Reformation in 1529.

One of Sissach’s landmarks is Ebenrain Castle. This late-baroque castle was built in 1775 by the Basel silk trader and manufacturer Martin Bachofen-Heitz (1727-1814). The architect was Niklaus Sprüngli (1725-1802).

Jakob Probst (1880-1954), Schwörender, Ebenrain Castle

The castle was a summer and hunting residence with a Baroque garden on the north side, which was later changed into an English garden, and a Lindenallee on the south side. The Canton of Basel-Landschaft acquired Schloss Ebenrain in 1951. The canton uses it for representative occasions and events.

(Source and further information: Gemeinde Sissach; Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, Sissach)

Impressions of Sissach