Painting, Salesianum/St. Karlshof in Zug
Landscape view of the Salesianum or St. Karlshof in Zug as seen from the lake, with a carriage and four in front of the house and a sailing boat on the water in the foreground to the right. The artist’s signature “C. Steinmann” in grey can be seen in the bottom left corner and the Luthiger coat of arms in the top left. The back of the strainer frame again gives the artist’s name “C. Steinmann A. A.” at the top as well as a handwritten pencil note that reads “1116 – 55 Neu Luthiger”. The white and silver-coloured wooden frame is decorated with moulding, has a gilt inside edge and a gilt or brown painted outside edge. Two screws, one on either side, hold a hanging wire.
The St. Karlshof estate, where the Salesianum is located, took its name from Saint Charles Borromeo (02/10/1538–03/11/1584), a papal legate. Legend has it that he crossed the lake on a ship from Buonas in 1570 and set foot on Zug soil for the first time in this location. The chapel was built in his honour in 1610 and also named after him. In 1840, Peter Josef Zwyssig (03/10/1814–21/6/1874), a citizen of Baden, bought the estate. When the monasteries were dissolved in the early 1840s, Peter Josef’s brother Alberich Zwyssig (17/11/1808–18/11/1854) fled from his monastery in Wettingen to the St. Karlshof estate in Zug. In 1898, the Menzingen Institute under Mother Salesia Strickler (who was born in Menzingen on the Bumbachhof estate) purchased the estate. Designed in the style of a French villa, the building was named Salesianum in honour of Mother Salesia (16/2/1834 – 17/5/1898). From 1971 to 2002 it was leased out to a housekeeping institute for young women with learning difficulties and from 2003 to 2010 to the Riverside School (founded in 1990, and in 2008 merged with two other schools to form the “International School of Zug and Luzern (ISZL)”). In 2011 the St. Karlshof property was taken over by the real estate company Alfred Müller AG and from 2015 to the end of February 2019 it was used by the authorities of Canton Zug to house refugees and asylum seekers. On 9/11/2018 the real estate company publicly announced that the estate would be sold to the family of Bitcoin Suisse AG founder Niklas Nikolajsen (born in 1975) (“Nikolajsen Capital AG”).
The Chapel of St Charles Borromeo, together with the mansion and leaseholder’s house are listed in the inventory for the protection of cultural property as a B-object (of regional importance) under the KGS number 7361.
