Location Kehrsatz Demolished 1782 Architect Carl Ahasver von Sinner | Built 17th century Rebuilt 1782 | |
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Governing body Swiss Federal Government | ||
The rural palace of Lohn in Kehrsatz, near Bern, Switzerland, is the official estate of the Swiss Federal Council, the government of Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Contents
The first building
The first Lohn estate was built for the Landvogt Samuel Bondeli in the 17th century. It passed through several owners before ending up with the Bernese patrician Tscharner family. In 1740, Samuel Tscharner left the estate to his son Abraham Tscharner. Abraham's first wife, whom he met as a mercenary officer in Holland, died just three years after their wedding in childbirth.
His second wife bore him two daughters, of which the younger, Henriette Marie Charlotte, inherited Lohn Estate. She married the wealthy Beat Emanuel Tscharner in 1775. A few years later, he decided to replace the modest country house with a more impressive building.
The second building
Beat Emanuel Tscharner hired Carl Ahasver von Sinner to build the house for his family in 1782. The house remained in with the Tscharner family for just over a century. In 1897, Emil Welti, the son of the Federal Council member Emil Welti, bought the estate. In 1942, his widow, Helene Welti-Kammerer, donated the house and estate to the Swiss Confederation in memory of her father in law. The house was used by visiting royalty and heads of state until 1994, when the Swiss government began using the Hotel Bellevue.