Visitors who climb to the top of our twelfth-century keep pass a small, easily overlooked space high under the roof: the old prison of Thun Castle. From at least the seventeenth century, this is where the Bernese governor – whose seat the castle was from 1384 – had prisoners locked away. Among them were Anabaptist men and women from Thun and the surrounding valleys, held for nothing more than their faith.

For descendants of the Bernese Anabaptists – today’s Mennonite, Amish and Brethren families in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Ontario – this tower is one of the most tangible places of their family history anywhere in Switzerland. You can stand in it.

A name from the records: Melchior Brenneman, 1659

Genealogical research gives the tower a face. Melchior Brenneman (Brönnimann), born around 1631 in the hills above the Aare valley, was imprisoned at Thun in 1659 for his Anabaptist faith. He was released only on condition that he attend the state church – or face exile and corporal punishment. He did not yield: in 1671/72 the family fled into exile in the Palatinate, and their descendants later carried the name Brenneman to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where it is one of the great Mennonite family names to this day. His wife, Christina Reusser, is believed to have been a daughter of Steffan Reusser of Steffisburg – at the very gates of this castle.

What we are researching

Our museum team regularly works in the archives – the records of the Bernese administration, court documents and the castle’s own building history – to reconstruct who was held here, when, and under what circumstances. We receive many enquiries from families in North America and help wherever we can; some of what we find makes its way into this research series, into our guided tour «From the Castle Tower to the New World», and into the permanent exhibition.

Do you have a question about the tower prison, or about an ancestor who may have passed through Thun? Ask the archives – we read every message.