Bodenheim Castle
Bodenheim Castle is the oldest and only surviving aristocratic seat of the former Kerpen-Lommersum rule . It is located in the village of the same name Bodenheim , which belongs to the community of Weilerswist ( Euskirchen district ).
History of the residents and owners
As early as 32,000 years ago, the fields in the vicinity were inhabited by primitive people of the Aurignac culture . During excavations from 1969 onwards, the first permanent living spaces of this Ice Age man were found in West Germany. At the turn of the century, Bodenheim seems to have developed into a permanent place of residence. The Roman road Cologne-Trier led through the place. A Roman settlement is due to coin finds, a Frankish settlement mainly due to large grave fields from the 5th-8th centuries. Century attested. At least since the turn of the first millennium, Bodenheim belonged to the Lommersum farm association .
A family with this name was first mentioned in a document in 1136 with a wife Seburg von Bodenheim , but only in a fiefdom register of the Duke of Brabant from 1312 is an Adolphus de Bodenem listed as the fiefdom holder of the castrum Bodenem . Johann von Bodenheim, the last male representative of this family, died in 1377. The castle falls to Johann von Vischenich.
In the absence of male descendants, the castle passed to the Brent von Vernich around 1400. After only two generations, the Brent era in the history of the castle ended again around 1480.
In 1446 the von Tomberg family called Worms appears for the first time in a document in the rulership of Bodenheim. They were connected to the Brents of Vernich by marriage and lived in the castle. Around 1520, Goswin a Tomberg appears in a document as the feudal owner of Bodenheim. His son Dietrich rebuilds the castle after it was looted several times and burned down. In the absence of male descendants, the castle fell to Daniel von Hersel in 1629.
Thanks to his high position as treasurer of the Electorate of Cologne and the relationships connected with it, Daniel von Hersel succeeds in bringing Bodenheim Castle through the Thirty Years' War without great damage - but only with great financial sacrifices. The Hersel family kept Bodenheim Castle in their possession for almost 200 years.
In 1755 Clemens August von Hersel inherits the castle. After his death it falls to his two daughters. In 1792 the older one married Karl Eugen Graf von Hatzfeld -Wildenburg, who died shortly after the birth of their son Edmund. After the death of his mother in 1833, Count Edmund inherits her share of the estate and organizes extensive construction and repair measures, as the castle, which was uninhabited in French times, was badly damaged by storms and rain. In 1845 Count Edmund and his aunt sold Bodenheim Castle to the Duke of Arenberg .
The Arenberg family, one of the most successful and wealthy dynasty families in the Eifel , never lived in Bodenheim Castle, but leased it to the Thelen family for three generations. In 1930, Duke August Burg Bodenheim sold to the tenant family Kieselstein, who still own it today.
Building history
The origins of the castle are in the dark, but with the documentary mention of a certain Eigil around the year 950, there are first indications of a noble property in Bodenheim. It can be assumed that it was a moth . In Bodenheim the ideal-typical conditions for this early castle form can be found: in a water-rich lowland in the immediate vicinity of a flood-free place (Lommersum), an artificial hill is heaped up and provided with a castle-like fortification, whose trenches are connected with the help of a ditch (the Lommersumer Mühlenbach) nearby flowing water (the Erft ) can be connected.
Around 1350, the fiefdom directory already mentions a castrum , which proves that at that time it was already a two-part moated castle, separated into a fore and a main castle , the floor plan of which has probably been preserved to this day.
The oldest part of the castle is the west wing with the stair tower, which hides a stone spiral staircase inside. Its construction is dated to the early 15th century. The narrow intermediate wing to the east was built in the second quarter of the 16th century.
During the armed conflicts between Dutch and Spaniards caused by the Reformation in the late 16th century, Bodenheim Castle was plundered several times and partially destroyed by fire. In the course of the reconstruction, Dietrich von Tomberg had the east wing and today's castle gate built in 1589 , as evidenced by the year in iron anchors and the keystone above the entrance gate. He also set up a house chapel which housed various items of equipment until the 1960s , including a. medieval wooden sculptures (today in the holdings of the Museum Schnütgen in Cologne ).
In 1594 Georg von Tomberg and his wife had the west wing changed and documented this with their dated alliance coat of arms in the room above the entrance (no longer available). This established the current shape of the castle house, which was hardly changed at least externally in the following centuries. Burg Bodenheim also survived the Thirty Years' War without major damage. Whether the alliance coat of arms of Georg Franz Wilhelm von Hersel and his wife attached to the gatehouse in the middle of the 17th century should document the reconstruction of the building or merely their marriage and takeover of the aristocratic residence is controversial.
In the 18th century, minor changes were made to the east wing. It is possible that these construction measures were again the result of armed attacks, as the castle was billeted with 62 men in 1702 and was even attacked by the Kerpen garrison in 1709 to collect outstanding war taxes.
An original map from 1812 shows that Bodenheim was a two-part moated castle, separated into fore and main castle , and thus had the floor plan that still exists today. In the French period ( 1794 - 1815 ), however, the property was uninhabited and soon fell into such disrepair that rain and storms caused it severe damage. Therefore the owners considered a new building around 1815 and had a building drawing made for this purpose. If it had been realized, Bodenheim would have received a small castle in the late rococo style . Since such a new building would have been much more expensive than a restoration , the owners decided to restore the old building.
The construction work dragged on until the 1830s; In 1834 the bridge to the main building that still exists today was built. Illustrations from the later 19th century show that the castle has hardly changed its exterior since that time.
The farm buildings in the outer bailey date almost exclusively from the 19th and 20th centuries. Only the western front, especially the outer wall, still contains significant parts from the 16th century, in which the gatehouse was largely built.
In the 1980s, the last construction phase of the castle began with the repair of the roofs. The exterior of the mansion was then renovated and given a yellowish plaster. At the beginning of the 1990s, the interior was then renovated and divided into three apartments. In the east wing in particular, changes to the room layout were necessary - partly for structural reasons; so had z. B. supports for the Cologne ceiling are drawn in, which could thereby be obtained. The former house chapel, however, is no longer preserved. The moat has been dry for several years and is interrupted by an eastern approach.
sightseeing
Bodenheim Castle is privately owned and inhabited. An interior inspection is therefore not possible. Outside the former moat it can, for. B. as part of the Erft cycle path, can be viewed from the outside.
literature
- Franz Schorn: Bodenheim Castle and its owners. In: Weilerswister Heimatblätter , No. 28, 14th year, 2002.
- Harald Herzog: Castles and palaces - history and typology of the aristocratic seats in the Euskirchen district . 2nd improved edition, Cologne 1991 (= publications of the Association of History and Home Friends of the District of Euskirchen eV, A series, volume 17).
Web links
- Information about the castle and photos
- Material on Bodenheim Castle in the Duncker Collection of the Central and State Library Berlin (PDF download)
Coordinates: 50 ° 41 ′ 59 " N , 6 ° 47 ′ 56" E