Brüggen Castle

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Brüggen Castle seen from the east

The Brüggen Castle is a moated castle in the southeastern part of the Lower Rhine community Brüggen in North Rhine-Westphalia . It was the most important castle in the north of the Duchy of Jülich .

By the Earl of boilers in the 13th century to defend a ford over the Schwalm built, it was the beginning of the 14th century in the possession of the Jülich Dukes which the existing building by a quadrangular castle of brick replaced. After the occupation of Brüggen in 1794 by troops of France it was sold by the French government at the beginning of the 19th century to a private citizen and now houses among others a museum .

Building description

Layout of the castle; white: missing components, black: remaining components

The medieval Brüggen Castle was surrounded by a 14 meter wide moat with four round corner towers, which had an almost square, 40 × 37 meter floor plan. The main castle was surrounded by a 1.60 meter thick curtain wall, which had a battlement on the west and east sides. As additional protection, it had a late Gothic kennel on all four sides . The entire complex included a crescent-shaped small bailey to the west with a massive gate and a water mill, which is now used as a restaurant.

The former buildings are only partially available today. The remains of the wall of the ruins of the former north wing still protrude up to the middle of the first floor. From the castle chapel , which used to adjoin it to the east , only a small remnant of the 1.60-meter-thick western wall is preserved. The former ring wall with a corner tower called a knife tower, which has a domed vault on the ground floor, and the gate tower of the inner castle are also only partially in existence . Further remains of the wall can be found in the north of the area. They belonged to the Zwingermauer and to early modern bastions .

Gate construction of the outer bailey

Completely preserved or rebuilt are south facing, three-storey palace and the adjoining circular Southwest tower of the castle and the built of brick gatehouse of the outer bailey. The core of the latter dates from the 14th century, but was remodeled in the 16th century. It has a square floor plan with a side length of 8.10 meters. Its pointed arched gate opens into a barrel-vaulted passage. Above that there is a room with a flat beamed ceiling on the upper floor. The top section of the outer wall forms a pointed arch frieze above which a simple to pyramidal roof rises.

The brick walls of the Palas rise over three floors on a 26.7 × 10 meter floor plan. A pointed arch frieze at the level of the second floor on the southern outer wall shows where the roof approach was in the Middle Ages before the building was raised. The interior room layout no longer corresponds to the original state, but results from renovation work in the 16th century. The large, baroque staircase made of oak wood, which connects the three floors of the building , also dates from this period .

The former south-west corner tower of the main castle is connected to the Palas at its southwest corner. In contrast to the floors below, which were made of bricks, and the floor above, which was later added, its former top floor is made of Maastricht marl stones . His cone helmet was put on him in the autumn of 1994 based on models from the 17th century. The tower used to be home to a dungeon and could only be entered via a high entrance on the first floor.

history

In 1279 the Counts of Kessel gave up their ancestral seat on the Maas , Kessel Castle , due to financial difficulties and relocated the management of their eastern possessions to Brüggen, from a settlement at the intersection of the two important trade routes from Venlo to Erkelenz and from Cologne to Roermond had emerged. To protect this trading center, the counts are said to have built a castle there between 1264 and 1284. This was first mentioned in a document in 1289, when its owner, Walram von Kessel, gave it to Duke Johann I of Brabant as a fief on Christmas Eve of the year . As the successor of a moth she had the family of the boiler after Dutch models on a gravel island in the swampy Schwalm -motorized built. But the last impoverished Counts von Kessel died out as early as 1305, and the castle complex came to the Counts and later dukes of Jülich as a Brabant fief in 1306. They had the old buildings put down around the middle of the 14th century and replaced by a brick fort. Over the next 150 years or so, the owners changed hands several times. Among them are the Counts of Moers , who owned the complex as pledge for 12,000 Rhenish guilders , and the Counts of Wied , before the Jülich ducal house bought the castle back in 1494.

In the course of the rebellion of Adolf von Egmond against his father Arnold , the Duke of Geldern , the Burgundian Duke Charles the Bold, who was allied with Arnold, had Brüggen Castle stormed by his troops in 1473 and - like the entire city - set on fire. It was previously considered impregnable. In 1474 the castle was plundered again , this time by Geldrian soldiers. The facility was then rebuilt and even expanded. A third floor was added to the previously two-story building and the north side was reinforced by adding an earth wall in 1474/75. From 1520, further fortifications such as bastions were added to adapt the castle to the conditions of modern powder weapons. The core of the castle was surrounded by a fence wall, for which part of the moat had to be filled. The fortifications were probably expanded by a member of the famous Italian master builder family Pasqualini . At the same time, the eastern corner tower was probably demolished and a new castle chapel was built in its place, the predecessor of which was first mentioned in documents as early as 1467/68. In the period from 1561 to 1577, the hall was raised to its current height, provided with new, larger windows and the interior layout was fundamentally changed in order to serve as a residential floor for Duke Wilhelm V. In addition, the castle was given a fortress-like character through a bastion rampart with casemates in the north and west .

During the Seven Years' War in 1758, the castle and city of Brüggen were temporarily in the hands of Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . In 1770 the renovation of the pension building took place under the direction of the ducal master builder Klees. In addition, the up to eight meter high castle walls were partially removed.

Until the occupation of Bruges by French troops in 1794, the complex remained in Jülich's possession and served as a state castle to secure the northern borders of the Jülich territory. 1801, the French government sold the property to the last Jülich bailiff Johann Ludwig Dortans through which it by auction to the 1815 Amerner came Printzen wholesalers Johann Heinrich. The private men had since the 18th century gradually ruined castle fortifications including 75% grind , to utilize the stones as building material for other projects. In 1934 the married couple Wilhelm and Gertrud Stroetges finally acquired the property from the heirs of Printzen. They turned the business part of the castle into a popular restaurant for excursions. The hall of the complex was badly damaged by two bomb hits during the Second World War , but after the first structural emergency measures, it was extensively restored by the Stroetges family along with the other buildings in the castle . The municipality of Brüggen leased the remaining buildings in 1973 in order to open a museum in them. After the first necessary construction work from 1974 onwards, excavations followed in 1975 , which largely clarified the previous construction history. With the help of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Rhineland Regional Council , the reconstruction and renovation measures were completed by 1979.

Todays use

The castle is still privately owned today, but is leased to the municipality of Brüggen. Since 1979 it has been operating a regional hunting and natural history museum in the former hall and south-west tower , in which local, partly extinct animal species and weapons from the Stone Age to the 19th century can be seen. Since May 2000, Brüggen's Tourist Information Center has also been there, and since 2002 visitors have also been able to find out more about the Maas-Schwalm-Nette Nature Park .

In addition, the buildings and the castle area regularly serve as a location for cultural events such as concerts, theater performances and art exhibitions. Civil weddings have also been possible in the castle hall since mid-2009.

literature

  • Paul Clemen (ed.): The art monuments of the district of Kempen . L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1891 ( Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz . Volume 1, Section 1), pp. 23-27 ( online )
  • Bernhard Gondorf, Werner Otto: Castles and palaces. Highlights of Lower Rhine architecture . Mercator, Duisburg 1991, ISBN 3-87463-172-9 , p. 53.
  • Manfred A. Jülicher: Brüggen Castle through history . Self-published, Niederkrüchten 1979.
  • Gregor Spohr: How nice to dream here. Castles on the Lower Rhine . Pomp, Bottrop / Essen 2001, ISBN 3-89355-228-6 , pp. 14-17.
  • Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 40-41 .

Web links

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

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b A. Wemmers, J. Wroblewski: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein , p. 41.
  2. ↑ a b c Hans Ott: Rheinische Wasserburgen. History - forms - functions . Weidlich, Würzburg [1984], ISBN 3-8035-1239-5 , p. 160.
  3. ↑ P. Clemen: Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz , p. 24.
  4. ↑ a b P. Clemen: Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz , p. 27.
  5. ↑ a b c d Brüggen Tourist Information (ed.): Small table of the Brüggen Castle . Self-published, Brüggen 2004.
  6. ↑ According to the information provided by the local researcher Friedrich-Wilhelm Stroucken.
  7. ↑ a b brueggen-web.de ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  8. ↑ a b Information sheets on the history of the city and Brüggen Castle. Status: 2006.
  9. ^ A b c Karl Emerich Krämer : From Brühl to Kranenburg. Castles, palaces, gates and towers that can be visited . Mercator, Duisburg 1979, ISBN 3-87463-074-9 , p. 26.
  10. ↑ A. Wemmers, J. Wroblewski: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein , p. 40.
  11. ↑ According to other sources, 1933.

Coordinates: 51 ° 14 ′ 25.1 ″  N , 6 ° 11 ′ 9.3 ″  E