Schloss Arbon

Schloss Arbon rents out two very different things under one roof, and the city's own fee ordinance draws the line for you rather than leaving it to marketing copy. Book the Schloss-Stube and the tariff sheet is explicit: "Raum wird nur für zivile Trauungen vermietet," the room is rented only for civil marriage ceremonies. There is no other stated use for its 35 seats. One floor up, the Landenbergsaal is licensed for "kirchliche und zivile Trauungen, Konzerte, Vorträge, Tagungen, Empfänge, Versammlungen," religious and civil marriage ceremonies, concerts, lectures, conferences, receptions and assemblies, a room built to host almost anything, with a wedding just one line in a longer list. Which of the two a couple books decides not only how many guests fit, but the legal shape of the day itself.

That distinction matters here more than the castle's history does, because Switzerland recognises only a ceremony performed by an accredited civil registrar as a legal marriage, and this city-run building sits right at that line: part of it is licensed for nothing else, and part of it was never meant for a ceremony at all.

The castle predates the city that now runs it by well over a thousand years. A fortified late-Roman castellum called Arbor Felix, "the fortunate tree," stood on the site from the year 250, abandoned by the Romans around 400 during the Migration Period; the north and west walls of today's building still rest on those Roman foundations. The site later passed to the Bishopric of Constance, and Bishop Hugo von Hohenlandenberg rebuilt it into essentially its current form between 1515 and 1520, reconstructing the rear and front castle from the ground up in 1515 to 1518 and adding a further storey with a hip roof to the tower in 1520. That tower still stands 33 metres tall and today houses Arbon's own historical museum, so a wedding here shares the building with a public exhibition rather than having it to itself. The city's overview page names the castle's own restaurant, the Wirtschaft zum Schloss, alongside the panelled Landenbergsaal, as providing what it calls the dignified setting for a ceremony.

What the fee ordinance actually rents you

Four spaces inside the castle are listed individually, priced individually, and restricted to different uses, and only two of them mention a wedding at all.

The Schloss-Stube is the smallest and the most specific: two oak columns, a sandstone floor, a small attached kitchen, seating for 35, and, by the ordinance's own footnote, no permitted use beyond a civil ceremony. It is billed in a single half-hour block at CHF 150, which tells you how the city expects it to be used: booked for the length of the legal act itself, not for a reception built around it. Catering is described as "frei wählbar," freely chosen, meaning the city supplies the room and nothing else.

The Landenbergsaal, named after the bishop who built the castle, sits on the first floor and holds up to 200 people in concert seating. Its own page lists it as suited to religious and civil ceremonies alongside concerts, lectures, conferences and receptions, comes fitted with a podium, a screen and WiFi, and, like the rest of the castle, sits under a strict no-smoking rule. Renting it costs CHF 540 for a half day of 4 hours or CHF 1075 for a full day of 8 hours, with each additional hour billed at CHF 135.

Neither of the two remaining spaces is described as suitable for the ceremony itself. The Gastraum, a modern 202-square-metre room, holds 150 people standing or 70 seated, with a 122-square-metre attic lounge for another 40 standing; the city's page lists it for an aperitif, a festive dinner, a family celebration or a corporate event, not a Trauung. It comes with a kitchen and a bar, but catering there is "vom Mieter zu organisieren," to be arranged by whoever books it. A half day costs CHF 665, a full day CHF 1'330, each extra hour CHF 165. The Schlosshof, the open courtyard, takes up to 300 people standing for a reception or an aperitif, at CHF 50 an hour, CHF 100 for a half day or CHF 200 for a full one; the adjoining Foyer holds 40 for CHF 80 an hour and is the fallback when the weather turns. Right now the courtyard is not an option at any price: the city's page states it is closed until further notice for repair work on the castle tower, and points couples instead to the Schlosspärkli on the Schlosshügel or the nearby Jakob-Züllig-Park.

Extra items are priced by the piece: standing tables and banquet tables at CHF 10 each, a large screen at CHF 15, a flipchart at CHF 10, a projector at CHF 75. A set-up day before the event and a clear-out day after it each cost CHF 150, and a caretaker's time runs CHF 90 an hour. Local associations get half off, a discount that requires a registered Arbon address, at least 15 members and club activity focused on the city, which a wedding party plainly does not qualify for. That tariff line, and the Schloss-Stube's civil-ceremony restriction, both trace to a city council resolution dated 20 December 1999 that specifically revised the Landenbergsaal and Schloss-Stube rates, so this is not a recent policy.

Who actually performs the marriage

Booking a room from the city is only half the arrangement. The registrar who conducts the legally binding ceremony comes from a separate office entirely: the Zivilstandsamt Thurgau Ost, based in Amriswil, which covers 44 Thurgau municipalities including Arbon. Its phone lines run limited hours, open mornings and afternoons Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, mornings only Wednesday and Friday, and the office asks for a phone appointment before any in-person visit. A couple marrying at Schloss Arbon is coordinating two separate authorities from the outset: the city's own leisure and property department for the room, the canton's civil registry for the person who actually marries them. A privately run Swiss directory of civil-ceremony locations lists Schloss Arbon under this same Zivilstandsamt, describing the choice there as a civil ceremony or a church wedding with an independent theologian, pastor or officiant, matching what the Landenbergsaal's own page states.

For a couple marrying from abroad, that second office is the one that matters before any date gets fixed. Switzerland does not require either partner to be a resident, but a non-Swiss couple has to complete the civil preparatory procedure with apostilled or legalised civil-status documents and certified translations, a process that routinely takes longer than the same procedure for a Swiss-resident couple. Neither the room-rental pages nor the fee ordinance say anything about that procedure; it runs entirely through the Zivilstandsamt, and it is worth raising directly with that office rather than assuming the castle's own pages cover it.

What the site doesn't tell you

The city's listing is a room-rental page, not a wedding page, and it reads that way. There is no photo gallery built for couples, no sample day-of schedule, no named wedding coordinator: the contact for all four rooms is simply "Abteilung Freizeit/Sport/Liegenschaften," Arbon's leisure, sport and property department, reachable through the city's general switchboard rather than a dedicated events line. Catering across every room is left to whoever books it, described on the different pages as either arranged by the renter or freely chosen; either way, the city supplies a room and nothing to fill it with, no in-house kitchen staff, no preferred-supplier list. Nothing on any of the five city pages covering the castle is offered in English, and none of them say whether staff at the property department can run a booking call in English. A couple who doesn't read German will need to ask that question directly by phone rather than assume it from a municipal site with no English version anywhere.

Schloss Arbon suits a couple who wants the legal ceremony itself inside a genuinely old building, at a fraction of what a private venue charges for the same half hour, and who is willing to organise everything else themselves: catering, decor and a reception booked and paid for as separate line items on the same municipal tariff. It does not suit a couple who wants one point of contact managing food, flowers and photography around a fixed package, and it is a poor fit this year for anyone picturing an outdoor courtyard ceremony, since that space is closed for tower repairs with no publicised reopening date. What the city guarantees is narrower and more specific than most venues promise: a room legally licensed for the ceremony, a separate room or courtyard for the party afterward, and a published tariff that states exactly what every hour costs.