[1] According to legend, the first castle on the site was built by a Roman hunter who saw the massive sandstone spire on an island in the Sense river.

Initially he acted friendly and kind, but when the workers complained of the work or asked for pay, he murdered them and mixed their blood into the mortar.

[4] In the 13th century the castle and lands passed to the Kyburgs and then after their family died out in 1263/64 the Habsburgs beat out the Counts of Savoy to inherit it.

Under the Habsburgs several Ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) families held the castle.

[5] In 1310 Henry VII, the King of Germany, pledged the castle and surrounding Herrschaft to Count Amadeus of Savoy to pay debts.

The Counts held the estate for over a century, until the remote location and gradual decay forced them to sell the castle and territory to Bern and Fribourg in 1423.