Greetsiel Castle
| Greetsiel Castle | ||
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 Greetsiel Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Ulrichsburg | |
| Creation time : | 1362 to 1388 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg, location | |
| Conservation status: | Lost castle | |
| Place: | Greetsiel | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 29 '55 " N , 7 ° 5' 53" E | |
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The castle Greetsiel was the ancestral castle of the East Frisian count's family and Prince Cirksenas . It was in the center of the East Frisian village Greetsiel in the Aurich district in Lower Saxony .
history
A first chief's castle , the so-called olde huus in Greetsiel, was built between 1362 and 1388 by the East Frisian chief family of the Cirksena. The family originally had their headquarters in Appingen, two kilometers south . After the access to the open sea silted up there, the Haro Edzardsna relocated the family seat to the recently built sluice . In the course of the rise of the Cirksena to the leading chief family, Ulrich Cirksena by dat olde huus had a four-wing complex with a fortified tower built between 1457 and 1460 . On December 23, 1464 Ulrich was by Emperor Friedrich III. raised to the rank of imperial count and enfeoffed with East Frisia. Even after the seat of government was moved to Emden and later to Aurich , the castle was one of the most important sites in East Frisian history. In the course of the Geldrian feud , Balthasar von Esens took Greetsiel Castle in 1534 and kept it as a bargaining chip for the conclusion of peace. Count Edzard the Great was born here in 1462 . Under his rule, the Count's House achieved the greatest expansion of its sphere of influence.
After the Emden Revolution , the Cirksena had to recognize in the Treaty of Greetsiel that only the Reformed religion could be taught in Emden. In 1609 troops of the city of Emden occupied the place and the castle after disputes between the estates and Count Enno III.
In 1684, Christine Charlotte von Württemberg, as regent of East Frisia, again got into serious conflicts with the estates when she tried to turn East Frisia into an absolutist state . In the course of these disputes, foreign powers became active as allies of the conflicting parties in East Frisia. The Netherlands was on the side of the princess at that time, while the estates called on the Great Elector as chairman of the Westphalian Imperial Circle . On November 6th, the castle in Greetsiel was taken after a six-day siege by 300 men from regular Brandenburg regiments . They were supposed to set up a permanent Brandenburg garrison there, which from then on consisted of 200 men and, according to contractual agreements, was to be carried by the estates and the town of Greetsiel. In 1692 the stationing of the Brandenburg troops in Greetsiel was given up again.
After the East Frisian Count House died out and the Prussians came to power in 1744, the castle was initially used as a penitentiary from 1755 and then sold for demolition in 1777. Only the "Schatthaus", the former farmyard of the castle and the old stone house of the Cirksena are preserved today.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joachim Flessner: Ortschronisten der Ostfriesischen Landschaft: Greetsiel. (pdf; 1.2 MB) In: ostfriesenelandschaft.de. January 13, 2009, accessed July 17, 2020 .
- ^ Hajo van Lengen : History of the Emsigerland from the early 13th to the late 15th century . 2 volumes. Aurich 1973. p. 160