They had risen socially in the service of King Louis XIV and had received a title of baron (Reichsfreiherren) of the Holy Roman Empire from Emperor Leopold I in 1695.

Furthermore, already in February 1655, Martin von Besenval (1600–1660), Johann Viktor P. Joseph's father, was ennobled by King Louis XIV and raised to the knighthood in 1658 in gratitude for his merit for the French crown.

And on 11 August 1726, King Louis XV erected the von Besenval's possession of Brunstatt in the Alsace into a French barony.

The climax of the family's ennoblement was the elevation of Martin Louis de Besenval (1780–1853) to the rank of a comte by King Charles X on 18 March 1830.

The quote from the French ambassador in Solothurn from 1709 is legendary: "If the king could buy a man like Besenval in every canton, France could count on the [Swiss] Confederation as on its own kingdom.

[13] On 18 September 1716, Johann Viktor married Katarzyna Bielińska (1684–1761), daughter of Kazimierz Ludwik Bieliński, a Polish noble, politician and diplomat.

[14][15] Johann Viktor von Besenval died on 11 March 1736 in his hôtel particulier on the Rue de Varenne in Paris.

[3] Peter Viktor von Besenval, who was part of the highest circle of power in France, saw the dark clouds looming over the Ancien Régime in the course of 1789.

After the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, he wanted to escape to Switzerland, to his country estate, the Waldegg Castle, but he was no longer able to do so.

[20] After the death of Peter Viktor von Besenval in 1791, who was in fact not childless but had no legitimate heir, the Waldegg Castle, which was a Fidéicommis and could therefore only be passed on in the immediate family, went to the firstborn son of his cousin Johann Viktor Peter Joseph, the minor Ours Joseph Augustin von Besenval (1777–1831).

[23][4] Peter Viktor von Besenval's only child was his biological son Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur.

In the same year, the Swiss Government bought from the patrician family von Sury, the then owners of the Waldegg Castle, a sofa and six chairs, covered in beige fabric and embroidered with scenes from the fables of Jean de La Fontaine, except for the sofa, which is covered with a pattern of flowers and birds.

[27][28][29] The entire furnishings that remained at the Hôtel de Besenval after the baron's death in 1791 were auctioned in Paris on 10 August 1795.

On 27 July 1854, Amédée de Besenval tried unsuccessfully to sell the Waldegg Castle Estate at auction.

But an entrenchment was planned in the cour d'honneur on the south side of the castle and firearms openings in the barn in the rear courtyard.

With Amédée Victor Louis, Comte de Besenval (1862–1927), who lived in Naples, the main line of the family died out in 1927.

[3] From the early 20th century, the Waldegg Castle was no longer just a summer house, but was inhabited all year round.

In 1963, the last private owners of the Waldegg Castle, the three children of Gaston von Sury von Bussy (1852–1931) and his wife Anne, née de Reinach Hirtzbach, Charles (1884–1973), Victor (1892–1978) and Marguerite (1883–1969) donated the Waldegg Castle to the Canton of Solothurn, also because there were no direct descendants left of the three siblings.

[37] The three siblings Charles, Victor and Marguerite von Sury received a modest financial compensation from the Canton of Solothurn of CHF600,000 for the 200,000 square meter complex consisting of the Waldegg Castle and its formal garden and park, several outbuildings, two chapels, an allée, agricultural land and a farm.

In 1975, the Waldegg Castle became the headquarters of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue, an organisation that fosters understanding between the different languages and cultures of Switzerland.

[37][2][3][38][39][40] The Waldegg Castle was built in the local Türmlihaus style, meaning a house with many towers, compared to its size.

In the first construction phase in the 17th century, the rectangular wing, the corps de logis, designed by an unknown architect, was built with three tower-like pavilions facing the garden.

From 1689, after Johann Viktor P. Joseph von Besenval (1638–1713) was appointed Schultheiss of the Republic of Solothurn in 1688, long, single-floor galleries were added on both sides of the corps de logis, at the ends of which are corner turrets, a kind of small pavilions.

In the central axis of the corps de logis on the south façade, there is the coat of arms of the family von Besenval in stucco.

And horseshoes, the symbols of the coat of arms of the Besenvals' Barony of Brunstatt, adorn the red and white shutters of the corps de logis.

This chapel was dedicated to Saint Michael in honour of Katarzyna Bielińska (1684–1761), the Polish wife of Johann Viktor von Besenval.

The apostolic nuncio in 1686 and the bishop in 1690 gave the authorisation for the celebration of the Holy Mass in the Castle chapel, which is dedicated to Saint Maurice.

Johann Viktor von Besenval's brother, who supervised the construction work in his absence, reported to him: "I am unlucky with the completion of the chapel and the chaplain's house.

Because at that moment I found out that the bricklayer, with whom I signed the contracts to complete the work, had just thrown himself into the river and drowned.

"At around 1700, Johann Viktor P. Joseph von Besenval still carried out major transformations on the south side of the castle by replacing the panoramic platform of the parterre with a staircase and a fountain.