Rosenburg manor house
Location, Object
City of Stans, Canton of Nidwalden. Late medieval Rosenburg manor house, acquired (in 1692), enlarged and decorated by High Bailiff and Chief Magistrate Niklaus Keyser (d. 1704) and his son, Chief Magistrate Niklaus Daniel Keyser (d. 1753); restored 1976–1982. Now partly a restaurant; the room with the emblems on the 2nd floor is not open to the public.
Emblems (18)
Context
2nd floor, eastern corner. Room with wooden coffered ceiling with 18 painted emblems in grisaille (nos. 1–18) and coat of arms (diagram: a). Uncovered in the course of the restoration of 1976–1982.
Authorship, Date
Probably painted by Johann Joseph Obersteg (1692–1757) of Stans and his workshop, between ca. 1720/1750. Members of the Obersteg family also painted the partly identical cycles in Engelberg (OW), St Mary, and Grafenort (OW).
Significance
Emblematic ‘mirror for princes’ for Chief Magistrate Niklaus Daniel Keyser, who inherited the Rosenburg from his father and commissioned several of its interior decorations until his death in 1753.
Source
All from La Feuille/Offelen 1691 or later edition.
Literature
KdS UW: 903–932; KF 2: 338; Achermann 1988: 16–17; Bitterli 1992 (detailed documentation and discussion).
exterior from east.
room with wooden coffered ceiling with emblems, view from entrance (north-east).
room with wooden coffered ceiling with emblems, view from south-west.
A flowering crown imperial (Fritillaria imperialis).
MODESTA IUVENTUS HONESTA SENECTUS.
A sparrow in a tree.
NON CUIUS [recte: CUIVIS] PASSEREM E[SSE LICET].
A pair of scales with two pans in equilibrium.
STATEUM [recte: STATERAM] NE TRANSILIAS.
Three glasses on a table.
EST MODUS IN REBUS [Horace, sat. 1, 1,106].
A battering ram (aries militaris) before a fortress.
LABOR OMNIA VINCIT [cf. Vergil, georg. 1, 145].
A reed and a fern.
DISPAREM VITIS [recte: VITES; Horace, carm. 4, 11, 31].
A palm tree, with snakes and frogs beneath it.
INVIDIA INTEGRITAS [recte: INTEGRITATIS] ASSECLA.
A bundle of wood and cut corn beside a cornfield.
STAT SITA [recte: SUA] CUIQUE DIES [Vergil, Aen. 10, 467].
An oar appearing broken in the water.
FALLIMUR OPINIONE.
A bridle.
REGIT ET CORRIGIT.
A set square.
NISI IUSTITIAM QU[Æ]RO.
An elephant making way for a lamb.
MANSUETIS GRANDIA CEDUNT.
A rose before the rising sun.
MUSIS AURORA BENIGNA.
A chained lion subdued by a cloth.
IRAM PRUDENTIA VINCIT.
Lilies in a flower bed.
ORNANTUR POLITIORIBUS LITERÆ.
An ostrich holding a horseshoe in its beak.
VIRTUS DURISSIMA COQUIT.
An hourglass.
SIC TRANSEO.
A pair of bellows, with three air bubbles above it.
NON NISI VENTUS.
Copyright note: Added 2026. All photos taken by the author, September 2025. Floor plan adapted from Bitterli 1992: 201.