Krattigen

Krattigen is a municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located on a hill overlooking Lake Thun. Krattigen is first mentioned around 1300 as Krattingen. The earliest trace of a settlement in the area is a Late Bronze Age axe which was discovered at Krattigengraben. During the Middle Ages, Rotenbühl Castle was built near the village. The castle does not appear in any contemporary record and only the moat is still visible today. The village was first mentioned as a part of the Herrschaft of the Freiherr of Eschenbach. By 1300 it was a fief of the Lords of Corbières. Soon thereafter it became a fief of the Bernese Schultheiss Kuno Muenzer. After the regicide of King Albert I of Germany by his nephew John Parricida in 1308, the Austrian Habsburgs advanced a claim on Krattigen.