Berfes
Berfes is a Lower Rhine name for a keep , a mostly half-timbered building like a defense tower .
designation
A Berfes is a multi-storey building on a rectangular base with a massive substructure. The building type was designed to be massive in the ground floor area, so that it offered a certain basic security against break-ins and enemy attacks from outside. A Berfes was usually built in such a way that it was structurally separated from the actual courtyard on a moth or artificial embankment. In addition, moats were often dug around the building for further protection. The preferred structural separation between the courtyard and the Berfes was to ensure better protection against fires and looting, since mostly agricultural goods and valuables were stored in a Berfes, which could thus be better protected against loss. At the same time, due to their design, these buildings served as rural weir storage.
From the Lower Rhine Castle Guide we can see that in the area around Kempen 15 Berfesse have been proven by scientific studies. These were all in the area of land forces , which in turn speaks in addition to the function as storage and storage for the extended function of land defense. In the Rhineland , two of these functional buildings have been preserved in their original structure. At St. Hubert (Kempen) there is a Berfes on the Raveshof that was created at the beginning of the 16th century at the latest. In the LVR open-air museum in Kommern , a weir storage facility can be examined that originally came from Mönchengladbach -Lürrip and dates back to the 15th century. The weir warehouses had different names from region to region. In the Kempen / Krefeld area the buildings were called Berfes, in the region around Mönchengladbach the name Spieker (Low German expression for storage) was used.
In the later course of history, the Berfes was often expanded to a combined residential and warehouse building, as the former protective function was no longer required. As a rule, the Berfes lost its original typical appearance. The Gelleshof near Tönisvorst can be cited as an example of such a changed region . Despite the extensions, one feature of the original design has been preserved. The building is still separate from the rest of the complex today.
Buildings
- Raveshof near St. Hubert (Kempen), monument no.19
- Gelleshof im Kehn, monument no.27
- Weir storage facility in the LVR open-air museum in Kommern.
literature
- Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 78-81 .
Web links
- "Berfes in Kempen-St. Hubert" (sight in Kempen)
- "Gelleshof im Kehn" (sights in Tönisvorst)
- "LVR open-air museum in Kommern"