The castle was built on a rocky hill above the Aare river in the 13th century for a local nobleman named Gowenstein.

During a war between the Habsburgs and the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1389, a Bernese army sacked and burned the castle.

In 1465 Albrecht von Rinach sold the ruins and surrounding villages to Heinrich Hasfurter from Lucerne.

Until the 1798 French invasion and the Helvetic Republic swept away the old medieval system of noble landlords who ruled over villages and estates.

In 2009, Mr. Reller moved his real estate company into the castle and added a garage to store his automobile collection.