In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Besenval family were among the most influential patrician families in Solothurn and the Swiss Confederation. Having become rich through the salt trade, they occupied top positions in Solothurn politics and were in the service of the King of France as military officers. There they maintained a (half) company of the Swiss Guard and at times commanded one of the French Swiss regiments. The Besenval married specifically to connect with the Solothurn elite and in 1725 entered into family relations with the French royal family. They built the Palais Besenval and Waldegg Castle in Solothurn and the surrounding area. The family died out in 1927.
The Besenval family archives had been in the possession of the Fondation pour l'Histoire des Suisses dans le Monde in Pregny-Chambésy (GE) since 1980. Following the liquidation of the foundation in May 2021, the bankruptcy office of the Canton of Geneva donated the archives to the Solothurn State Archives in October 2022.
The acquired family archive comprises 75 boxes containing letters of nobility, correspondence, military and business documents as well as handwritten accounts and family trees from the 17th to 19th centuries. The foundation had the archive digitised and made accessible online before it was closed down. The Solothurn State Archives took over this important database and has been maintaining it since January 2023, thus preserving easy access to the Besenval family's valuable documents for international research.
In Solothurn, the archive material was combined with other Besenval family files that were already in the State Archives to form the StASO N-090 fonds. This means that the cross-generational tradition of the Besenval family is now concentrated in the Solothurn State Archives.
Further information on the family archive can be found in the State Archives' online catalogue: Staatsarchiv Solothurn
The following article provides detailed information on the Besenval family's sources: Berger, Tobias: Der lange Weg des Familienarchivs Besenval zurück nach Solothurn, in: Pierre-Victor de Besenval (1721-1791). Une vie au service du Roi de France / Peter Viktor von Besenval (1721-1791). Ein Leben im Dienst der französischen Krone, [Sion, Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus], 2024, S. 257-263.
