Friedestrom Castle

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West side of Friedestrom Castle
Panorama of the courtyard

The castle Friedestrom earlier often also lock Friedestrom called, is a former Electorate of Cologne country castle in Dormagen district town Zons . The former moated castle is located on the left bank of the Rhine and was intended, among other things, to secure the Rhine toll levied in Zons. It therefore belongs to the type of customs castle . Furthermore, she was responsible for securing the territory of the Electorate of Cologne against the Counts and later Dukes of Berg .

By the Archbishop Friedrich III. were built by Saar in the second half of the 14th century, the castle had its heyday in the 15th and 16th centuries. It began to decline gradually in the 17th century, accelerated by damage during the Thirty Years' War . After the occupation of the left bank of the Rhine by French troops, the complex was confiscated. It came into private hands by auction in 1803 and was subsequently used as an estate . In 1972, the then Neuss district took over the castle and set up a cultural center there.

The castle complex is both a monument and as an archaeological monument under monument protection .

history

Beginnings and heyday

Written sources document a Fronhof of the Cologne Archbishopric in Zons since at least the 12th century , which was previously a Frankish royal estate. The court was one of the twelve table goods owned by the Archbishop of Cologne and was probably expanded into a castrum in the 13th century under Konrad von Hochstaden . The disputes between Kurköln as landlord and the Jülich counts , who owned the bailiwick law there , were decisive for its establishment . The exact location of the system at that time could not yet be determined with certainty. Their appearance is also not known. After Archbishop Siegfried von Westerburg was defeated in the Battle of Worringen in 1288, his Zons castle was razed by the victorious Cologne citizens and their stones were used in the construction of Cologne's city wall .

At the site of the destroyed facility, Friedrich III. von Saar Werden build a new castle from 1373. It was supposed to secure the Rhine toll that had been moved from Neuss to Zons a year earlier and, as a state castle, also played an important role in the expansion and protection of Cologne's territorial property on the Lower Rhine. Friedestrom Castle was an important link in the castle belt of the Electorate of Cologne and developed into the seat of a bailiff who represented the interests of the Electorate of Cologne. After all, the toll castle produced around 5000  guilders a year. At the same time as the castle was being built, the archbishop had the settlement fortified , which is why the Zons city fortifications have an identical construction method and the same building materials as Friedstrom. For the castle, a stone church that already existed on the area was demolished except for the tower and converted into a residential tower with additions . This was followed by the construction of a gate tower as well as an inner and then an outer defensive wall , which together formed the core castle . The castle complex was completed in 1377. In 1388, work on the Zons fortress was completed and Friedestrom Castle was integrated into the city fortifications. At the end of the 14th to the beginning of the 15th century, a fence wall was placed in front of the core castle in the west and north . At the same time, the gate tower was widened and a representative residential building was erected to the north of it. The north wing of the castle was probably built at the beginning of the 16th century.

Decline and rededication

Friedestrom Castle, detail from a view by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg from 1575

The gradual decline of Friedestrom Castle began in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The residential tower in the main castle area was laid down between 1650 and the middle of the 18th century. The west wing of the main castle was probably also demolished at that time. Their tasks were taken over by buildings in the outer bailey : the so-called manor house dating from the 17th century and the stables .

During the Thirty Years War, the Hessian Colonel Carl von Rabenhaupt besieged the town and castle in 1646 , but was unable to take them despite heavy fire. However, the Hessian artillery caused severe damage to the west wing of the core castle, so that it was no longer habitable. The capture of Friedestrom only succeeded soldiers of the Sun King Louis XIV in the course of the Palatinate War of Succession . However, they were forced to withdraw in 1689 by combined Brandenburg and Dutch troops. The Zons fortress, together with Friedstrom Castle, remained occupied by them until 1697. After they withdrew, French troops took the castle again in 1701 and devastated it.

In 1794 it was again the French who took the town and castle complex into their hands by military force: Like many towns on the left bank of the Rhine, Zons was occupied by French revolutionary troops and the castle was confiscated as a church property in 1802. At the latest towards the end of the 18th century, the castle area was also rededicated as an estate. In 1802 the main castle was largely derelict. The French government auctioned the dilapidated facility in 1803 to Matthias Melchior Aldenhoven, who adapted it to the requirements of a farm with renovations. A barn was built on the site of the former west wing , while the north wing was rebuilt. In 1895 Friedestrom Castle was owned by Baron Daniel von Diergardt zu Mojawola, who leased it to the Aldenhoven family.

Todays use

The district museum is housed in the manor house

In 1972, what was then the Neuss district took over the facility on a long lease in order to convert it into a cultural center by 1994. Not only did extensive restoration and repair work on the preserved buildings take place, but the district also had new buildings built in the castle area. The barn on the west side of the main castle area was demolished and replaced by a modern building. The royal stables in the outer bailey were given a modern steel and glass extension on the west side in 1994, based on a design by the Cologne architect Walter von Lom. Together with the manor house and the stables, it now serves as a district museum , in which, among other things, the world's largest collection of pewter from the Art Nouveau period can be seen. In addition, display boards and exhibits provide information on the results of three excavation campaigns carried out by the Rhenish Office for Monument Preservation in 1980/81 and from 1986 to 1988 before the new buildings were erected in the inner courtyard.

Outdoor stage

The Neuss district archive moved into the modern west wing and the south wing of the main castle. Since January 1, 2007, it has been united with the Dormagen city archive under the name “ Archive in the Neuss district ”. Attached to them is a specialist library with a focus on regional history and general cultural history . The international dialect archive "Ludwig Soumagne" (IMA) has been housed in the same wing since 1990 and serves as a documentation center for German-language dialect literature with a focus on the Rhineland . Alternating with the Peace Stream Prize, which is awarded every two years , the IMA awards the Franz-Peter Kürten Award for services to the Rhenish dialect .

Since its restoration in 1989, the north wing of the high palace has served as the central event space for cultural events such as concerts and readings. The eastern part of the kennel is also used for cultural purposes. It houses an open-air stage , where since 1935 a group of amateurs has been performing mainly fairy tales.

description

Schematic site plan of the castle complex

The former state castle of the Archbishops of Cologne is only partially preserved in its medieval form and was located directly on the river bank until the course of the Rhine changed. It is a two-part castle complex, consisting of a core castle, also known as the high castle, and a hook-shaped outer castle area to the west and north of it. The almost square castle area is located in the southeast corner of Zons and is surrounded on all four sides by a defensive wall, which forms the Zons city ​​wall on the east and south side . The castle area enclosed in this way measures around 11,000 m² and thus takes up around one sixth of the old town area. This is like a second, outer bailey in front of the inner bailey. In the past, the castle complex was also separated from the city by a moat in front of the curtain wall , but the neighboring open- cast lignite mine caused the groundwater to lower, so that all of the moats have now fallen dry and have been partially filled in. When building the castle, different types of stone were used in different wall techniques: In addition to basalt columns and trachyte from the Drachenfels from the Siebengebirge , tuff and the brick so typical of the Lower Rhine were also used.

The entire length of the castle complex is preceded by an average 28-meter-wide kennel in the south, the south wall of which used to be significantly higher than it is today. 12 of the 28 meters are taken up by the partially filled in moat . At the east corner of the Zwinger are the remains of a two-storey round tower that used to function as an icebreaker .

Outer bailey

South gate

A late medieval double gate from the Zwinger gives access to the outer bailey. The outer of the two gates, called the south gate , protrudes about 15 meters from the ring wall of the castle complex and has Gothic ornamental shapes. It owes its current, well-preserved condition to a restoration in 1983. Since the end of the 14th century, it has enabled access to the castle independent of the city and was formerly connected to the inner gate of the curtain wall by an arched corridor . The gate lane walls are still preserved from the connecting corridor. The gate has a rectangular floor plan on which the walls for two storeys rise. The masonry of the high ground floor is made of basalt, tuff and brick, while the upper floor is made of brickwork. To the left of the large gate with domestic Mount trachyte is a small, arched Manntor. A replica of a statue of the Madonna from the 15th century, the original of which is in the district museum, stands above the arched gate passage in a small, barred niche with a three-pass screen. Weathered coats of arms can be seen on both sides of the niche. The left shows the cross as a symbol of the Cologne Archbishopric, while the right shows the double-headed eagle of the city founder as Count von Saar Werden. The corners of the upper floor are marked by cantilevered, polygonal corner guards that rest on pointed arches and have machicolations .

Buildings on the north side of the outer bailey

On the north side of the outer bailey, three buildings are lined up, all of which are now used by the Zons District Museum. The easternmost of them is called the manor house and got its name when the electoral Cologne bailiff moved his seat there from the core castle because the west wing was badly damaged in the Thirty Years War and was no longer usable for living. The two-storey, elongated building with a gable roof is plastered in yellow and is divided into nine axes by windows with red and white shutters . In its vaulted cellar there are still two brick wells. To the west of the manor house is the former horse stable, the brick building of which is mostly a new building from 1974. The two-story building has a gable roof and windows with light stone walls . The westernmost building of the north wing of the outer bailey is a modern hall made of glass and steel, which is lower than the neighboring building. With its year of construction in 1994, it is the youngest building in the entire castle area. Directly to the west of it is the former entrance to Friedestrom Castle in the ring wall of the outer bailey, which is now walled up. The current access from the city east of the manor house was only created after the Thirty Years War.

The Juddeturm

At the northwest corner of the outer bailey is the so-called Juddeturm from the end of the 14th century, which probably got its name, which has been documented since the Middle Ages, from the former owners, the Cologne patrician family Judde. The round tower gives a very slim impression due to its height of six floors, although its wall thickness on the ground floor is 2.10 meters. Maschikulis and loopholes underline the fact that the tower was very defensive. Up to the surrounding late Gothic frieze between the fifth and sixth floors, the masonry of the tower consists of basalt blocks and brick. The sixth floor has a circumferential battlement with brick walls, which rests on corbels with pointed arches in between. Four of the arches are designed as cast holes. Today's baroque tail hood replaced a blunt conical roof around 1600 . It is crowned by an eight-sided lantern with a slate hood and weather vane . Inside, the ground floor is taken up by a single octagonal room, which is spanned by a dome with a diameter of 3.30 meters. The windowless room previously served as a prison, from which serious criminals could be lowered into the dungeon below, seven meters deep, through a hatch in the floor . There is also an octagonal room on the first floor, the outer walls of which are still 1.60 meters thick. The room has a fireplace on the north-east wall - like the rooms on the second and third floors. The upper floors were used for residential purposes and are accessed via a narrow spiral staircase with trachyte steps. The stairs are located in a slim five-sided stair tower on the east side. It can be reached via a narrow corridor that is as thick as the tower, to which a steep stone staircase leads from the courtyard on the inside of the curtain wall.

A large part of the outer bailey area is taken up by a castle park , the old trees of which consist of linden , sycamore maple and chestnuts and were recently supplemented with newly planted ginkgos , red beeches and linden trees.

Core castle

The inner castle was previously separated from the outer castle in the west and north by a moat. This was 14 meters wide and 6.5 meters deep and has walls on both long sides. While its outer wall was built from basalt, the inner moat wall consists of 18 layers of trachyte blocks. However, this trench has now dried up and partially filled. The four-storey gate tower on the west side as well as the still preserved north and south wings originate from the Gothic main castle of the 14th century .

The four floors of the gate tower rise above a square floor plan with a side length of 8.40 meters. On the ground floor, made of hewn trachyte cuboids, there is the ogival gate , which is framed by the niche of the former drawbridge . The chain holes of the bridge are still present in the cover. The first and second floors have tuff masonry and corner blocks made of trachyte. This material is repeated in the window frames made of house stone, which were made as cross-story windows on the first floor . Above the barrel-vaulted passage there are two superimposed rooms that served as guard chambers and the remains of chimneys on the south wall. From the chamber on the second floor there is an access to the battlement on the south side of the main castle. The third floor, made of bricks, consists of a projecting parapet walkway with small corner waiting areas. It rests on a late Gothic pointed arch frieze made of tuff with cast openings on the outside of the tower. The upper end is formed by a massive, bent hipped roof , which replaced the dilapidated, original tower roof in the 1970s.

South wing

To the north, the medieval basalt wall meets the gate tower. It used to serve as the outer wall for the west wing. The current west wing is a modern new building from 1990, which was built over the foundations of the wing from the Middle Ages. Parts of it are still preserved in the basement, including a six meter deep well that was last used as a latrine . The north wing of the main castle adjoins the western building at its northern corner. It is not only the youngest part of the historical building stock, but also the best preserved. The two-storey building made of exposed brick consists of a single large hall over a late medieval vaulted cellar on the ground floor . During the restoration of the hall in 1989, remains of ornamented wall paintings from the Gothic era were uncovered. The southern core area is taken up by a building made of basalt and bricks, the part of which near the gate is the only original preserved. This also includes a small corner control room on the southwest corner. However, the majority of the building is a modern creation, including the pent roof with dormers . In some places a brick frieze has been preserved at the level of the former eaves cornice . At the southeast corner of the south wing - and thus at the southeast corner of the castle and the city - there is a massive round tower, the so-called castle tower . Its foot area consists of trachyte cuboids with edge fittings, while the upper parts of the wall are made of basalt. It is one of the four former corner towers of the Zons city wall.

Marking of the church floor plan in the inner courtyard

The three wings of the high castle frame a paved inner courtyard in which the foundations of several Romanesque churches were discovered during excavations in the 1980s . The castle area is therefore under monument protection as a ground monument . The floor plans of two church buildings were made visible in the courtyard paving : A red marking shows the location of a hall church from around the year 1000, a church built around two centuries later is marked by gray paving stones.

literature

  • Paul Clemen (ed.): The art monuments of the Neuss district (= The art monuments of the Rhine Province . Volume 3, Section 3). L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1895, pp. 119-122 ( digitized version ).
  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments . North Rhine-Westphalia. Volume 1: Rhineland. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1967, p. 666.
  • Karl Emsbach: Zons (= Rheinische Kunststätten. Issue 496). Neusser Druckerei und Verlag, Neuss 2006, ISBN 3-86526-004-7 , pp. 15-20.
  • Ludger Fischer : The most beautiful palaces and castles on the Lower Rhine. Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2004, ISBN 3-8313-1326-1 , pp. 28-29.
  • Brigitte and Walter Janssen: Castles, palaces and court festivals in the Neuss district. District administration Neuss, Neuss 1980, ISBN 3-9800327-0-1 , pp. 139–155.
  • Hanns Ott: Rhenish water castles. History - forms - functions. Weidlich, Würzburg 1984, ISBN 3-8035-1239-5 , pp. 151-154.
  • Marion Roehmer : Castle Friedestrom. History in Archaeological Finds. District of Neuss, Neuss et al. 1994.
  • Marion Roehmer: Friedestrom Castle in Zons. Archaeological research in a medieval fortress. In: Peter Ströher (Red.): Find and Interpretation. Recent archaeological research in the Neuss district (= publications of the District Home Federation . No. 5). Kreisheimatbund Neuss, Neuss 1994, ISBN 3-923607-6-4 , pp. 100-107.
  • Marion Roehmer (Ed.): Burg Friedestrom in Zons. Medieval ceramics and building finds from a Rhenish customs fortress (= Rhenish excavations. Volume 42). Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7927-1603-8 .
  • Gregor Spohr: How nice to dream away here. Castles on the Lower Rhine. Pomp, Bottrop, Essen 2001, ISBN 3-89355-228-6 , pp. 164-165.
  • Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 52-53 .

Web links

Commons : Burg Friedestrom  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ^ Hanns Ott: Rhenish water castles. 1984, p. 134.
  2. ↑ a b List of monuments of the city of Dormagen; Status: July 14, 2017 , accessed on January 19, 2020.
  3. ^ Karl Emerich Krämer : From castle to castle on the Lower Rhine . Volume 1, 4th edition. Mercator, Duisburg 1982, ISBN 3-87463-057-9 , p. 27.
  4. ↑ Walther Zimmermann , Hugo Borger (ed.): Handbook of the historical sites of Germany . Volume 3: North Rhine-Westphalia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 273). Kröner, Stuttgart 1963, DNB 456882847 , p. 682.
  5. ^ A b Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein. 2001, p. 52.
  6. ↑ Karl Emerich Kraemer states in his publications 1275 as the year of construction, but withholds the source for this information.
  7. ^ Brigitte and Walter Janssen: Castles, palaces and court festivals in the Neuss district. , 1980, p. 145.
  8. ^ Gabriele M. Knoll: The Lower Rhine. Landscape history and culture on the lower Rhine. DuMont, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-2283-6 , p. 310.
  9. ^ Hanns Ott: Rhenish water castles. 1984, p. 152.
  10. ^ 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. 44.
  11. ↑ a b c Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss Castle Guide Niederrhein. 2001, p. 53.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f Karl Emsbach: Zons. 2006, p. 18.
  13. ↑ a b c Paul Clemen: The art monuments of the Neuss district. 1895, p. 115 ( digitized version ).
  14. ↑ On the archaeological investigations in Burg Friedestrom in Zons , accessed on January 19, 2020.
  15. ↑ "Zoonser Ursprunck": The Chronicle notes of Josef Hugo (1739-1823) , access on 19 January 2020th
  16. ↑ a b Zons cultural center. Information flyer from the Rhein-Kreis Neuss on the institutions located in Friedestrom Castle. OJ
  17. ↑ a b Karl Emsbach: Zons. 2006, p. 16.
  18. ^ Karl Emsbach: Zons. 2006, p. 17.
  19. ↑ a b Karl Emsbach: Zons. 2006, p. 15.
  20. ↑ a b c d Karl Emsbach: Zons. 2006, p. 19.
  21. ↑ a b c Paul Clemen: The art monuments of the Neuss district. 1895, p. 121.
  22. ↑ a b c Paul Clemen: The art monuments of the Neuss district. 1895, p. 119.

Coordinates: 51 ° 7 '11.7 "  N , 6 ° 51' 4.1"  E