Over-The-Hill In Europe Part 3
November 24, 2023
We drove across the border into Switzerland this morning. Our first stop was Altenklingen Castle. I had heard about this fortification since my “courtin’ days” with Jackie Jackson back in 1982 and ‘83. Her family lineage can be traced back to the builder of the present citadel.
The site had been a fortress since, at least, the year 900 AD. In the tenth century it withstood an attack by the Hungarians, and later, in 1395, a fourteen-day siege by the Appenzellern, a cooperative group made up of local farmers and craftsmen rebelling against the traditional power structure of princes, lords and abbots. It was one of the few bastions that did not surrender.
In 1585 Leonhard Zollicoffer purchased the estate and castle. A year later he tore it down and built the preset structure. Legend says that in 28 days he had the foundations laid and had his new castle “dried in” against the rain in eleven short weeks. The replacement he built retained the name Altenklinger Castle.
The walls were plastered over with stucco, so I’m only guessing they were made of stone, but whatever the construction was, it would have been quite a feat to put up the shell of a building that size in less than three months. Of course, in those days, permits and inspections were not required!
So, for over four centuries the castle had been the traditional home of the Swiss, Zollicoffer family. Eventually, a generation or three afterwards, a potential heir to the estate left the home country and settled in America. Later, his descendent, Felix Kirk Zollicoffer obtained the rank of general and fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War. He was killed at the battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky.
It was through these Americanized Zollicoffers that Jackie’s family laid claim to the castle! Her father, like his father and grandfather before him, all had the name Fredrick Zollicoffer Jackson. Her brother also, got the name as did his son. Her father went by the name Fred, her brother, Rick, and her nephew, Zol. So far, no one else has been saddled with the name to be forever called Licoff or Coffer!
The Zollicoffer family still owns the castle and most of the surrounding land. The fortress is still in use as a summer residence. It is so big, however, it would be impossible to heat during the winter months, so the family fled to warmer quarters.
Had they been in residence, and because Jackie and Heather could verify their connection with the family, the owner would have allowed us to see the inside of their personal residence. Heather got to see it last year, shortly after being stationed in Germany. Now, Jackie is the only one of her family never to have set foot inside the residence. However, on this trip she was thrilled just to see and touch the outside of her castle!
We left the castle and drove through the rolling Swiss countryside on winding roads, past beautiful farmsteads that looked like they could have been the backdrop for a movie called Heidi, through hamlets and villages with tall church steeples, steep roofs and white plastered houses crisscrossed with dark wooden beams. We saw sheep and cows, many of the bovines wearing clanging bells. The cows wore bells because their horns did not work!
We traveled for over an hour, slowly closing in on a range of mountains, not the Alps, but still beautiful. We wanted to conquer a high peak, not by hiking, but by riding to the top in a gondola. When we got to the bottom of the mountain, it was all for naught! We were informed that the winds were too high, and the gondola was closed for the day.
As we drove through the towns, we saw groups of children, and sometimes even a single child walking by themselves down the sidewalk. These children were in grade school, like in first and second grade, yet they were not accompanied by a parent or other trusted adult! I found that insane!
In days long ago, when I was five years old, I remember strolling down a busy road by myself to visit my grandmother or walking the mile to High Gove Elementary School to attend kindergarten without adult supervision or protection. If I didn’t walk alone to school, I was probably holding hands with Della Martinez, my classmate and next-door neighbor. That was before I realized girls had cooties!
Nowadays, with child predators hiding behind every tree, it would be foolhardy to send a child out walking by themselves. How they manage to do so in Switzerland, I don’t know. Maybe they still have lots of millstones lying around. If we had more millstones here in the USA, I believe the problem would disappear, and not the children!
FIN
More Over-The-Hill In Europe
- https://fillburns.com/2023/12/07/over-the-hill-in-europe/
- https://fillburns.com/2023/12/09/over-the-hill-in-europe-2/
Something Different
- https://fillburns.com/2022/08/28/bloom-where-you-are/
- https://fillburns.com/2021/08/14/the-girl-with-dirt-on-her-face/
- https://fillburns.com/1981/07/30/the-fall-of-matt-castagna/
Writings By Phil 
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