Altenwied Castle

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Altenwied Castle
Altenwied.JPG
Creation time : around 1100
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Received or received substantial parts
Standing position : Count
Place: Neustadt (Wied)
Geographical location 50 ° 36 '45 "  N , 7 ° 24' 7.4"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 36 '45 "  N , 7 ° 24' 7.4"  E
Height: 204  m above sea level NHN
Altenwied Castle (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Altenwied Castle

The castle Altenwied is a small Spur castle on the territory of the municipality Neustadt (Wied) , the district of Wied, in the Rhineland-Palatinate district of Neuwied .

location

The castle is located in the northern Westerwald at 204  m above sea level. NN above the valley of the Wied . Altenwied Castle is located west of Neustadt and the Autobahn 3 on a rock spur about 50 meters above the Wied on the Neustadt (Wied) - Linz am Rhein road (Landesstraße 251).

The district town of Neuwied is 20 kilometers south, the next major city Bonn 25 kilometers northwest, Cologne 47 kilometers north-northwest and the Rhine Valley 13 kilometers west (all information as the crow flies).

history

The castle already existed at the beginning of the 12th century and formed the center of part of the Middle Rhine property of the Counts of Bilstein . It came to the Landgraves of Thuringia through Countess Kunigunde von Bilstein .

In the middle of the 13th century, along with the parishes of Asbach , Neustadt and Windhagen , Countess Mechthild von Sayn took possession of the Cologne Archbishopric and became the seat of the Altenwied office . The subsequent Nassau office of Altenwied (1806-1815) and the Prussian mayor's office Altenwied (1817-1823) named themselves after the castle.

During the Thirty Years War , the castle was ravaged by Spanish troops in 1633. In 1830 Altenwied Castle and the surrounding area came into the possession of the Prince House of Wied .

In 2003, the Windhagen entrepreneur Jürgen Wirtgen bought the castle and the surrounding forest area from Carl Fürst zu Wied (1961–2015). In close coordination with the State Monument Preservation, Wirtgen had the building restored and instead of the medieval residential buildings erected a villa that takes up the style elements and building materials of the historical complex in color. The result is a striking and widely visible complex that is not accessible to the public.

investment

Altenwied Castle from the south

The castle complex is around 60 meters long and up to 26 meters wide. Altenwied Castle is dominated by the 17 meter high pentagonal keep , which has a floor area of ​​15 × 9.5 meters and again has a roof. Other parts of the castle (such as the shield wall in the north) are still preserved or have been partially rebuilt. Today only an outside tour of the inhabited castle is possible.

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