Rode Castle

Rode Castle
Creation time :	before 1104
Castle type :	Höhenburg, location
Conservation status:	Receive
Standing position :	Count
Construction:	Brick, humpback cuboid
Place:	Herzogenrath
Geographical location	50 ° 52 '1 "  N , 6 ° 5' 24"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 52 '1 "  N , 6 ° 5' 24"  E

The Rode Castle is a hilltop castle in the center of Herzogenrath in the Aachen city region . It is only a few hundred meters from the border with the neighboring Dutch town of Kerkrade . The association "Burg Rode Herzogenrath eV" organizes regular events such as concerts, dialect evenings, exhibitions and cabaret in the castle. The traditional castle festival takes place in June. Castle tours are also offered and the Herzogenrath registry office regularly conducts weddings there .

history

In 1104 Herzogenrath was first mentioned in the Annales Rodenses of the Rolduc monastery as a castle settlement of the Counts of Saffenberg "Castrensis Viculis". The castle is border fortress and Zollburg in one. She came to the Duchy of Limburg as a dowry through the marriage of Mathilda von Saffenberg in 1136 . The Wurmufer formed not only the imperial but also the diocese border. For example, the area of ​​the Wurmufer on the castle side belongs to the diocese of Liège around 1136, while the parish of Afden in the lower town belonged to the archdiocese of Cologne. The Via Belgica , which quickly became an important trade route, ran past Herzogenrath at the height of today's town hall in Roman times . This ran from Cologne via Herzogenrath, Heerlen, Maastricht, Tongeren to Boulogne sur Mèr or Amiens. In the early Middle Ages, however, the old route via Übach-Palenberg was abandoned and instead diverted through Herzogenrath.

The importance of the customs office in Herzogenrath can be seen from two factors: On the one hand, the Rolduc Abbey, which is located directly next to the Rode fortress, became the parent church of the Dukes of Limburg, and on the other hand, tax lists for the Brabant Empire still exist today, providing information on income give out of the kingdom. These also show that over 3300 gold guilders were made in Herzogenrath per year, which exceeded the other customs offices of the country by more than ten times.

Rode and Herzogenrath Castle, seen from Rolduc Abbey , around 1850

Especially in view of the Battle of Worringen in 1288, it can be assumed that the customs office in Herzogenrath played an important role in the War of the Limburg Succession. This thesis is mainly represented by Johannes Becker and Stefan Becker from the Burg Rode Verein. a. the efforts of the Brabanters to take Rode Castle in the run-up to the Battle of Worringen. They tried to take Rode Castle in several attempts in 1283. After all efforts to take the heavily developed fortress themselves had failed, the dispute over the succession of the Limburg family brought a happy turn for the people of Brabant. In addition, Johannes and Stefan Becker refer to the above-mentioned customs revenue in the Brabant period, which clearly showed how enormously important the customs post was for the respective owner. The expansion stages of the castle to a first class festival also speak for the importance of the castle.

In 1282 the name Herzogenrath was first documented under the name "s'Hertogenrode" ("the Duke clearing"). After the end of the Duchy of Limburg and the associated Battle of Worringen, Rode Castle became the property of the Dukes of Brabant . The lords of the castle and Droste von Herzogenrath were also the lords of Alsdorf Castle .

In 1150, Gottfried von Lovenberg, the husband of Adelheidis von Merode, was mentioned in a document as the first knight . In 1229, Knight Harper von Lovenberg, “dictus Mule castelanus ostri et dapifer de Rode”, burgrave and Drost of the Brabant country Herzogenrath, from 1320 to 1342 a Harper, Mule von Lovenberg.

Temporarily leased to the Duchy of Jülich, the castle belonged to the Habsburg Netherlands for 250 years from 1544 until the French occupation in 1794 .

When the border was drawn by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Rode Castle fell to Prussia and was separated from Kerkrade and Rolduc Monastery for the first time. Today the state border, which was originally on the outskirts of Herzogenrath, runs between the towns of Kerkrade and Herzogenrath.

The castle, which was restored in historicizing forms in the 20th century , served as the town hall of Herzogenrath between 1913 and 1978.

Web links

Commons : Burg Rode  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Burg Rode Herzogenrath eV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gabrielle M. Knoll: DuMont art travel guide Aachen and the border triangle . DuMont, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-7701-1829-4 , p. 215
2. ↑ site burgrode.de, accessed 8 February 2012 ( Memento of 16 August 2013, Internet Archive )