Old Bensberg Castle

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Old Bensberg Castle
Old castle and town hall Bensberg 2004

Old castle and town hall Bensberg 2004

Creation time : 1100 to 1200
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Preserved essential parts
Standing position : Count
Place: Bergisch Gladbach
Geographical location 50 ° 57 '54 "  N , 7 ° 9' 48"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 57 '54 "  N , 7 ° 9' 48"  E
Old Castle Bensberg (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Old Bensberg Castle

The Old Schloss Bensberg also castle Bensberg called, is a medieval castle in the district of Bensberg of Bergisch Gladbach in the Rheinisch-Bergisch district in North Rhine-Westphalia . In the years 1962–1972 it was expanded into the Bensberg town hall according to the plans of the architect Gottfried Böhm .

history

North-east side of Bensberg Castle, view from 1826

According to the excavation results and the archaeological findings from earlier years, the first buildings in Bensberg Castle must date from the Staufer period in the 12th century or even earlier. Documented evidence is largely missing until the 13th century. The few existing documents are contradictory and some of them are forgeries. The first written mention of Bensberg can be found in a document from Archbishop Arnold I of Cologne in 1138/39 , in which Wicherus de Benesbure is listed as one of the witnesses. It is about the donation of an estate in Braubach to the Siegburg monastery . In the absence of other sources, it can be assumed that Bensberg Castle was in the possession of Thuringian Landgrave Ludwig I at that time .

According to an older publication, Engelbert I. von Berg is said to have expelled robber barons who used the castle complex and took possession of it for the county of Berg around 1170 . Their Bergisch Burgvogt Curt von Arloff defended the castle in 1198 against Bohemian mercenaries who roamed and plundered in the Rhineland as part of the Crown dispute between Philip of Swabia and Otto IV . 1218 was by Count Adolf III. von Berg and his brother Archbishop Engelbert I issued a certificate. In this the Knechtsteden Abbey is given patronage for Rommerskirchen . “Acta sunt hec apud Bensbure” was stated in the text of the certificate. At this point in time at the beginning of the 13th century, Bensberg Castle was already being used temporarily as the administrative seat of both Archbishop Engelbert I and the Count of Berg.

These last dates contradict a more recent evidence, according to which the first possession of the castle in Bergisch hands can only be documented for the year 1247. However, even according to these more recent sources, it is assumed that the Counts of Berg had already gained access to the Old Castle at the end of the 12th century via the Margraves of Thuringia.

Between 1202 and 1238, Engelbert von Bensberg appears several times in the sources, who obviously belonged to the Bergisch ministry or knighthood. These are father and son, both of whom had exercised the office of the court food. Evidence of the castle in Bensberg comes from the Chronica regia Coloniensis in which an unsuccessful siege in 1230 is reported.

The destruction of the castle by Cologne mercenaries in 1225, according to a further older evidence, is probably misinformation. This also applies to the reconstruction by Duke Heinrich IV of Limburg , who was also Count von Berg at the time. Unambiguous evidence for Bensberg Castle is a document dated June 16, 1247. This document concerns a comparison between the mother Irmgard von Berg and her son Adolf IV von Berg about the division of the county of Berg. While the mother receives the castles Burg and Angermund for use, Adolf is given the castles Windeck and Bensberg. This is followed by evidence for 1255. In that year, the guests who came to the laying of the foundation stone of Altenberg Cathedral stayed in Bensbure Castle. Around 1296 the knight Hunekin von Bensbure is said to have been bailiff. This was a council of Count Wilhelm I von Berg .

The Bensberg Castle was built as a fortified castle from the start . Together with a curtain wall, a moat was built in the south-east and south as early as the 12th century , which was fed by a spring in the east. To get into the interior, you had to pass a drawbridge , which as a simple bridge still existed until the 1960s, as you can see in the photo from 1902. In this respect it was half a moated castle .

Old Bensberg Castle from the southwest, 1902
Old Bensberg Castle, inner courtyard with the chapel of the Catholic hospital in 1904

The development of firearms at the end of the 14th century led to the castle being increasingly used for residential purposes. Since 1413 people no longer spoke of the castle, but of the castle and house as well as the Bensberg farm. The extension of the castle administration to the official administration gave the castle more public tasks due to the new Bergische Ämterverstellung . The castle ruler was no longer a knightly castle man, but now took on administrative activities in Bensberg and had the title of official school . Then the bailiff of the Porz office had his residence at the castle in Bensberg. In 1446 the castle, office and winery in Bensberg were mentioned together. A year later, the Bensberg winery and the Porz administration were run separately. At the same time, however, there was also talk of the Porz-Bensberg office because the bailiff was at Bensberg Castle.

The damage in the Thirty Years' War led to the facility slowly decaying. Since the elector Jan Wellem built the new Bensberg Castle from 1706 , the old Bensberg Castle became meaningless. In 1793/1794, during the First Coalition War against the troops of the revolutionary French, rooms in the castle were used as a hospital for imperial troops. In 1859 a monastery was built in the castle complex, and in 1897 a Catholic hospital that was in operation until the 1950s. In 1962, the council of the then city of Bensberg decided to convert the facility into a new town hall.

Conversion to the Bensberg town hall

Bensberg town hall, view of the stair tower

At the end of the 1950s, the desire for a new and functional town hall building grew in Bensberg. The choice of the location fell on the old castle Bensberg. First, an inventory and securing of the existing castle ruins was carried out. The components dating from before 1850 were included in the planning. These included the pentagonal keep from the 12th century , the Engelbert Tower, the outer wall in between, the former castle portals, a vaulted cellar and another smaller tower. These elements, together with the old castle wall in their ring-shaped arrangement, formed the base of the new building.

An integration of the old castle ruins and the associated connection between history and the present became part of the tender, which was in favor of a design by the architects Gottfried Böhm. A decisive factor was the departure of the Böhm model from the monotonous architecture of the 1960s.

The jury saw Böhm's design as an artistic answer to the urban planning task. The market square concept was emphasized along with the counterpoints stair tower and small inner courtyard. In the interior, the concept of connected corridors with attached rooms allows a distinctive orientation, which makes a central hall dispensable.

Reactions

Courtyard old and new.

The building initially polarized very strongly. The FAZ saw in it a walk-in sculpture , the art historian Jürgen Paul the crystalline, frozen Baroque , in which the high-tension visions of Expressionism are resurrected. The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger named the building Bensberger Akropolis .

The building was also noticed internationally: The London Times reported in words and pictures about the unusual shape , the Hong Kong China Mail about the cement castle and the Genoese sheet “Il Nuovo Cittadino” recognized Germany's most modern town hall .

On the other hand, the mayor of Bensberg Müller-Frank was frightened after the scaffolding was removed and associated the tower with a minaret that had been shot . Countless letters of protest to newspapers and councilors wished the loopholing monster to shoot at the moon. The then Federal Minister of the Interior, Paul Lücke - resident of the town hall - recommended that his roommates live with the officials' bunker . The jagged concrete tower soon became popularly known as Aapefelse (monkey rock).

implementation

Around a square that slopes down to the south, the remains of the castle complex merge with the town hall building designed by Böhm in exposed concrete . When viewed from the outside, the first thing you notice is the high curtain wall with its formerly walled-up double and triple-arched windows from the early 13th century, which is continued in concrete. The town hall square is accessed through the area between the two towers.

In the left area of ​​the inner courtyard is the council chamber, the back wall of which consists of the remains of the old ring wall , and the inner courtyard side was designed with glazing that extends from the ceiling to the floor. Following the ring shape, the building increases its number of floors up to the stair tower, which with its sculptural appearance represents the most striking element of the town hall and at the foot of which is the main entrance.

To the right of the stair tower, the number of floors is reduced again following the courtyard contour from five to one floor and ends in front of the right of the two towers at the starting point. Merged with this, there is a smaller continuation of the development outside the inner courtyard in the form of a caretaker's apartment and other ancillary rooms.

On the back of the building complex, behind the right wing, there is a smaller staircase, which - like the stair tower - enables a permanent view of the staircase thanks to uninterrupted glazing in the outside direction. Unlike in the stair tower, the glazing of which is flush with the facade, the windows here - as in the rest of the building complex - are offset behind the facade. The glass surfaces - unlike in the stair tower - are made of rectangular shaped and assembled glass elements. The viewer is given the impression that the glass elements have to bear the weight of the massive concrete elements. The flat roofs are made of folded zinc sheet, the water drainage takes place u. a. over numerous gargoyles .

The interior of the building is characterized by the aesthetics of the exposed concrete from which all walls and ceilings are made. There are various openings and niches within the concrete elements. The ceilings in the area of ​​the corridors to the offices are faced with light brown, matt wooden panels. All floors and stairs are made of red bricks without exception. In this combination the building develops an almost sacred atmosphere.

The ground floor is separated from the inner courtyard along the length between the council chamber and the stair tower exclusively by full-surface glass elements. This front is equipped with several of Ausluchten provided reminiscent elements that protrude up to the second floor.

The stair tower offers a special effect: thanks to the frameless glazing that follows the course of the spiral staircase, the user can experience a permanent view of the view towards Cologne Bay, which is improving from floor to floor, while climbing the stairs.

The lighting of the building is also an integral part of the architecture. In the concrete ceiling and in the edge area of ​​the stairs there are small indentations that are barely visible from an acute angle - they are equipped with small spherical light bulbs. In the area of ​​the corridors to the official rooms, the lighting consists of fluorescent tubes embedded in the wooden ceiling above the doors.

Todays use

Until the two former towns of Bergisch Gladbach and Bensberg were amalgamated into one town in 1975, the town hall housed the town hall of Bensberg. After the municipal reorganization , the city administration was spun off into other buildings in Bergisch Gladbach. The technical department of the city administration is located in the Bensberg town hall. Meetings of the Council and the committees also take place here. Furthermore, the town hall and the inner courtyard are used for concerts and events of all kinds.

monument

The old castle is registered under No. 19 as an architectural monument in the list of architectural monuments in Bergisch Gladbach .

Picture gallery

Individual evidence

  1. baukunst-nrw , Guide to Architecture and Civil Engineering in North Rhine-Westphalia , accessed on February 24, 2016.
  2. ^ Vinzenz Jacob von Zuccalmaglio , in: Die Vorzeit der Länder Cleve-Mark, Jülich-Berg and Westphalen . 1837, p. [183] ​​169.
  3. Lacomblet, Theodor Joseph: Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine or the Archbishopric of Cologne, Certificate No. 71. Volume 2, 1846, p. [77] 39. Digitized edition ULB Bonn
  4. Lothar Speer: "Who did Bensberg Castle belong to in the 12th century?" In: Heimat between Sülz and Dhünn, issue 20, 2014, p. 5 ff.
  5. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger online edition of May 29, 2016. Article Lothar Speer . Bergisch Gladbach / Bensberg Castle
  6. Lothar Speer: "Engelbertus de Bensbure - Approaches to a Bensberg Family of the 13th Century" in: Heimat between Sülz and Dhünn, Issue 22, 2016, pp. 13-19
  7. ^ In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine . 1873, issue 25, p. [201] 195.
  8. Lacomblet, Theodor Joseph: Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine and the Archbishopric of Cöln, document 312 . Volume 2, 1846, p. [200] 162.
  9. a b Hermann Hengstenberg, in: The former Duchy of Berg and its immediate surroundings . 1897, p. [86] 76.
  10. ^ A b Kurt Kluxen : History of Bensberg. Paderborn 1976, ISBN 3-506-74590-5 , p. 50 ff.
  11. ^ Town hall Bensberg , brochure, press department City of Bergisch Gladbach
  12. Showcase in the building
  13. ↑ The spawn of communal megalomania . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 1980 ( online ).
  14. Dat things . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 1966 ( online ).

Remarks

  1. In a current article in the LVR / Portal Rheinische Geschichte by Alexander Berner, an elaboration on "Count Engelbert I. von Berg" mentions: The noble centers of the Berger in the second half of the 12th century were "Schloss Burg" and the "Burg Bensberg ”. Thus, some current historians also assume that Bensberg belonged to the Berger family as early as 1200.

literature

  • Lothar Speer: “ The first written evidence in search of the beginnings of the places in the Bergisch Gladbach area ” in: Bergisch Gladbacher Stadtgeschichte, Bergisch Gladbach City Archives 2006, ISBN 3-9804448-6-4 , p. 63 ff.
  • Lothar Speer: " Bensberg Castle in the 12th century - from the Counts of Bilstein to the Counts of Berg " in: Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter 80, 2016, pp. 24–57, ISSN 0035-4473

Web links

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