Bellinghausen Castle

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Bellinghausen Castle
Graphic reconstruction of Bellinghausen Castle

Graphic reconstruction of Bellinghausen Castle

Creation time : High medieval, first mentioned in the 15th century
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status: Burgstall, foundations
Place: Wiehl
Geographical location 50 ° 56 '7.9 "  N , 7 ° 31' 15.7"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 56 '7.9 "  N , 7 ° 31' 15.7"  E
Bellinghausen Castle (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Bellinghausen Castle

Bellinghausen Castle is the stable of a high medieval moated castle . The remains of the former castle are in Niederbellinghausen , a district of the city of Wiehl in the Oberbergisches Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia .

description

The main building of the castle was 16 × 20 meters. It was flanked by three round towers that were 6.30 meters in diameter. The wall thickness was 1.60 meters. On the east side there was a gatehouse measuring 5 × 2 meters with two gate towers . The wall thickness of the porch was 0.8 meters. There was also a bailey , which consisted of two buildings. In one building there was a forge and stables . The other building was used for residential purposes and had a spacious cellar.

The main and outer bailey were protected by a wall . Outside the fence was a farmyard to the northwest, which was preserved as a leasehold of the Breidenbach family until the beginning of the 19th century. It was a rectangular building about 10 meters wide and 50 meters long.

history

Reconstructed floor plan with the coat of arms of the Bellinghausen parent company

The castle was probably the ancestral castle of the knight family von Bellinghausen, who had a red wall anchor on a silver background as their coat of arms. It was first mentioned with Adolf von Bellinghausen, who died in 1462. His grandson Peter von Oedinghoven Bellinghausen sold “Hof und Gut” Bellinghausen in 1546 to the bailiff of Sayn-Homburg Wilhelm Quad ( quad = cross head ) to Isengarten from Isengarten Castle near Waldbröl . At that time the castle was only used as a leasehold. The sale is the first documented mention of Bellinghausen Castle. Johann Quad von Isengarten zu Bellinghausen got after the succession in 1565 the rights to the house Bellinghausen and the associated farms. According to records, he carried out construction work on the family seat in 1581. In 1616 he moved to Cologne with his wife and leased the castle house. In 1617 Johann Quad von Isengarten gave the House of Bellinghausen to the Counts of Sayn-Hachenburg as a fief and in 1620 he left it to his son Eustach. The heirs of Eustach sold the property, which had already been divided into two halves and was heavily indebted, to the Counts of Homburg around 1670 . She had the property repaired and leased it to farmers.

There is no record of the condition and use of the castle building after the construction work in 1581. The castle is no longer shown on the tranchot map from 1817/1818 and the Prussian first recording from 1832, so that it no longer existed at that time. The existing descriptions deal with the use of the leasehold north-west of the castle.

Research history

Exposed foundations of two towers, 2019

The castle was discovered in 1929 when the community of Bielstein was looking for water sources in the swampy area when foundations were found. As a result, the local researcher and founder of the Museum of the Oberbergisches Land, Hermann Conrad, carried out archaeological excavations . Finds were weapons, chains and locks made of iron, as well as a large number of fragments of ceramic vessels. Bone material embedded in the walls was discovered, which was interpreted as a construction sacrifice. These were the bones and teeth of boars and deer . Since no glass remains were found, glazed windows in the castle building are not assumed. Burned oak planks indicate a possible destruction of the castle by fire. The ceramic shards were Siegburg ceramics . Based on the finds, the excavator Hermann Conrad estimated the period of use of the castle from 1250 to the beginning of the 16th century.

The original excavation documents were kept in the museum at Homburg Castle and were lost. They could be reconstructed through oral records and the Bergisches Geschichtsverein , Oberberg department . The descriptions and interpretations of the excavator Hermann Conrad should be viewed critically from today's perspective, as the excavations at that time were improvised.

Despite the excavation in 1929, the castle site was not registered as a ground monument until recently . As part of the protection procedure, all existing reports and documents were reassessed. For this purpose, employees of the LVR Office for Land Monument Preservation in the Rhineland evaluated a digital terrain model based on airborne laser scanning data in 2019 . It confirmed the results of the earlier excavation and their interpretation of the castle's layout. In 2019, employees of the LVR Office for Ground Monument Preservation in the Rhineland carried out an excavation in which they uncovered the foundations of the former castle. It served to control the excavation from 1929 and to better classify its results.

literature

  • D. Dresbach, F. Licht: The history of the castles Bellinghausen and Börnhausen. In: Börnhausen and its neighboring towns. The history of the Bechtal. Castles - villages and farmsteads on an ancient high and high road , Wiehl, 2004, pp. 71–76.

Web links

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