Habsburg Castle is known as the ancestral seat of the ruling dynasty of the same name, whose rise began with the acquisition of territories in the surrounding area. The founder of the House of Habsburg is said to have been Radbot, around 1020/30. In 1108, Otto II became the first member of the family to be documented as Count of Habsburg.
For around two hundred years, the castle served as the Habsburgs’ principal residence. Around 1220/1230, the increasingly powerful count’s family left the complex, which had become too small and insufficiently prestigious for them. It was subsequently granted to various vassals. With the conquest of Aargau by the Swiss Confederates in 1415, the Habsburgs – who had by then established a far more significant centre of power in Vienna – lost their ancestral castle for good. The Habsburg has been owned by the canton of Aargau since 1804.
