Wartenberg Fortress Ruins on the Walk from Muttenz to Liestal

Saturday March 9, 2024 -- Final hike of the season before my very long trip to Canada... (I will miss all the blossoms in the beautiful Swiss springtime!). 

As our apartment is being renovated, we are staying with friends in the Northwestern part of Switzerland not far from Basel, and it made sense to do one final hike in that area. We chose to do another section of the Via Gottardo Trail, which actually starts in Basel and crosses the entire country to the East and South, ending in Chiasso at the very southern end of Switzerland. The 13-km section we chose starts in Muttenz and ends in Liestal. 

As Muttenz has basically become a very dense suburb of Basel, we were surprised that it still has a very attractive "old town", with the main feature being a unique church surrounded by thick defense walls, as a castle would be (unique for a church). It is the only fortified church in Switzerland surrounded by a defense wall, and is a monument of national importance. It also contains some nice frescoes from the 15th Century. 

Overlooking the old town on the top of a small mountain called Wartenberg are three fortress ruins, which we explored at length (the highlight of the day) before continuing on the rest of the 12 kilometers to Liestal. Along the way we passed another castle ruins called "Neu Schauenburg" which we had already checked out on a hike in April 2021, but there was no access behind the walls. (All of these fortresses and old churches were heavily damaged in the Basel Earthquake of 1356). 

We took a bus from Muttenz train station into the old town to save on 15 minutes of walking. From the main road of the old town of Muttenz, we can see the steeple of the church called St.Arbogast. 

After checking out the houses in the old town and the very interesting fortified church, we followed Trail no.7: Via Gottardo to the Wartenberg Ruins and to Liestal, just over 3 hours of walking time. We started at about 10 a.m. 

Typical style of the older houses in this part of the country, large farm houses with attached stables (thus the large doors), most of which have been updated and modernized inside. So nice to see the first pink blossoms. 

First point of interest is St.Arbogast, the only church in Switzerland with a defense wall. 

Passing through one of the two gatehouses of the defense wall into the courtyard with the main church (and a separate building which was the charnal house, which is where dug-up human remains used to be stored). 

Entrance to the church

I climbed the stairs to the organ balcony and got a look over the whole interior this way. The third church (12th Century) here was severely damaged in the 1356 Basel earthquake, but some of the old church remains. This one was rebuilt three years after that earthquake. 

The organ is definitely not as old as the rest of the church. 

Details from inside the church, especially the lavish fresco paintings. The church was restored in 1973-1975. 

The frescoes were painted in 1450. 

This second building within the walls is called a Charnal House, which was where human remains were stored when graves were dug up. On the left is the second i.e. south gatehouse (the gate was locked). 

I went up those old, old wooden stairs to see if the upper door was open. No luck on that. We did look inside the building, which wasn't being used as an ossuary, but looked more like a reception room (possibly also used as a funeral house?)

Inside the Charnal House building were more frescoes, large murals along each wall. 

In the second gatehouse was this inscribed stone, possible a gravestone. I can't read everything, but it looks like the deceased was named Ursula, and she might have died in 1776 at 74 years of age. In other words, this tombstone would be 250 years old. 

The thick walls and ramparts were added in 1435. The original town defenses were the fortresses on the hill above the village, but they were also destroyed in the Basel Earthquake, so this fortification provided the new defense for the village. 

Before starting on our hike, Urs has to get himself some sustenance at the local bakery!

Easter flowers!

St. Arbogast from the south with the south gatehouse and the surrounding fortified wall. 

Muttenz has a museum (building at the back), and that cat just owns the road!

In all we again walked almost 13 km (3½ hours) along the Via Gottardo Trail (no.7) from Muttenz to Liestal.  

East of the old town of Muttenz is the long hill called Wartenberg, which has been a look-out point for this region for centuries. From here you can see two of the three fortress towers. 

Heading up the hill now (10:45) to discover the fortresses. Here are more of those lovely old houses with the built-in stables. 

Nice with the pink blossoms. 

Above the large stable doors, the year 1777 is inscribed in the sandstone arch. 

It's so nice to see colour again. 

On our way up toward the fortresses, I spied this tower in the distance to the West. It turns out this is called the "Wasserturm Bruderholz" (Water Tower), is 27 meters high, has 167 steps to a look-out platform. It looks like we will have to come back to climb that one!

The entire Wartenberg Mountain is also a nature reserve. 

Reaching the first of the three ruins; this one is called "Vordere Wartenberg" or "Anterior Wartenberg"

Most of the fortress was destroyed in the 1356 Basel Earthquake. After such destructive events, most of the rest of the building material is carted away to be used elsewhere. 

This is what the original fortress probably looked like. This is the oldest and largest of the three castles built here in the mid 12th-Century. It was 100 meters long and 30 meters wide. 

Heading up to the top of the wall for the view. 

On the left is another "suburb" of Basel called Pratteln, and straight ahead is the forest we are going to walk through on our way to Liestal. 

The white blossoming trees are so pretty. 

From here, 2½ hours to Liestal. 

This is the tower from the "Mittlere Wartenberg" (or Middle Wartenberg Castle) just an 8-minute walk from the first ruins. This tower sits at the highest point of the Wartenberg "mountain".

Entrance to the tower. 

This is what the middle fortress might have looked like. This is apparently a representative residence tower, although there is barely any information about the site other than the remaining tower. It was also a defense tower, and would have had a wall around it as it was accessible from all sides. 

The wooden staircase leads up to the ramparts

A look down into the empty tower from the ramparts. Wooden floors would have rotted away long ago.

 A look across Muttenz all the way into the city of Basel. 

A close-up look at the two Roche Towers (Chemical Company) in the center of Basel. The first tower (the triangle one in the front) is 178 meters high, and at 205 meters, the second tower behind it is the tallest building in Switzerland. 

Down below us is the old part of Muttenz where we started our hike. This small mountain afforded ideal views in all directions. Just past the large forest on the right is the Rhine River, and beyond that is Germany. 

A zoomed-in view of the St.Arbogast fortified church in Muttenz

From the ramparts of the middle fortress we see the tower from the posterior fortress. 

A look behind us at the Middle Wartenberg tower as we head to the last one, only a few meters away. The original name seems to have been lost, and since the hill is called Wartenberg, that is why the three towers have the names "Anterior, Middle, and Posterior". 

This is the Posterior Wartenberg tower, the most southern one. 

This tower had a neat and narrow winding staircase to the view platform. 

More views over Muttenz and Basel from this one (view is to the west and northwest)

This close-up is of personal interest, as the houses in the center are corporate housing called Freidorf where I lived with relatives for some weeks in early 1986. The large building at the back is the St.Jakob Stadion, the largest soccer stadium in Switzerland and home of FC Basel. (Fussball Club Basel)

View of the castle grounds from the tower look-out platform. 

Details of the Posterior Wartenberg tower. 

This is what the third fortress might have looked like. Until the end of the 13th Century, all three towers were part of one large defense site. The situation of this hill was ideal for observing all the main routes from Germany to the French border as well as north and south. 

Shortly after noon we left the Wartenberg hill and headed off on the rest of our walk. This was the view of the first castle ruins as seen from the south. 

The first blossoms are such a relief from the colourless winter landscape. 

We sat on a bench for another picnic lunch, and watched a falcon hunt for mice in the pastures. 

Also one of my favourites in early spring: The first leaves of Bear Garlic on the forest floor. (We took a detour through forested sections to avoid a lot of the paved roads, but the ground was wet and muddy. At this time of year, it's almost better to stay on paved roads!)

Many of the colourful flowers we saw along the way, both in the forests and on private properties. 

This is the other castle ruins on this stretch of the trail. It is called Neu Schauenburg, and we walked all the way to the walls back in 2021, but had no access inside the walls. 

At 1:40 we were at the Schauenburg ruins, and still had about 90 minutes to walk to Liestal train station!

A view of the Schauenburg ruins from the south. 

These cliffs are called the Schauenburgflue, and are apparently interesting to climbers!

The city in the back is Frenkendorf, where we ended our 2021 hike. During cherry blossom season, these hills will be white as snow, which is what we experienced that previous time we walked here. 

A residence in Liestal which we passed on the way to the train station. 

I don't know what these blossoms are.... 

This is what our 13-km walk looks like on Google Satellite maps. We started at 10 a.m. in Muttenz, and got to the train station in Liestal at about 3:10 p.m. 

These are the other hikes we have done in the area. The other two (2019 and 2021) were during cherry blossom season, which is a very pretty time, as this is a large cherry-growing region. 

Location of Liestal within Switzerland.