Heinsberg Castle
| Heinsberg Castle | ||
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 The Burgberg in Heinsberg, seen from the Kirchberg in February 2011 |
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| Castle type : | Hill castle, moth | |
| Conservation status: | Wall remains | |
| Standing position : | High nobility | |
| Place: | Heinsberg | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 3 '36.7 " N , 6 ° 5' 36.2" E | |
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The castle Heinsberg is the ruins of a on a moth (motte) built edge Hausburg in the North Rhine-Westphalian district town of Heinsberg . The area known as the Burgberg and Kirchberg was expanded into a bastion fortress in the 16th century.
History and description
The Burgberg / Kirchberg area is one of the largest preserved moth systems in the Rhineland . A natural spur extending into the valley on the edge of the Rur valley was divided by double excavation, namely into the castle hill and the church hill. The end of the terrain spur, i.e. today's castle hill, was artificially raised to a 10 meter high main hill. As bailey today Kirchberg served on its territory by predecessors in the 15th century Gothic collegiate church St. Gangolf was built. The precise building history of the castle is not known. Archaeological investigations of the castle hill revealed layers of settlements and rubble from the 11th to 16th centuries.
At a time that is not exactly known, probably in the 11th century, the castle became the seat of the Lords of Heinsberg . Initially, the castle was likely to have been little more than a wooden earth plant, but it was, not least because of the destruction of the castle and settlement in 1144 by Heinrich von Limburg on behalf of the Roman-German King Konrad III. In the course of the 12th century it was expanded into a stone-walled Randhausburg. Non-local materials such as limestone , tuff , marl and sandstone were also used during the expansion .
After the rule of Heinsberg had fallen to the Duchy of Jülich through marriage and inheritance, the castle became the seat of a Jülischen bailiff from 1484. After Wilhelm V of Jülich, Kleve and Berg had been elected Duke of Geldern by the Geldrian estates in 1538 , which the Roman-German Emperor Charles V also claimed for himself, he joined the Spanish in the same year due to the exposed location of Heinsberg Netherlands started to develop the city and castle of Heinsberg into a modern fortress. The planning was done by Bertram von Zündorf , who also worked for the ducal house at the Düsseldorf Palace. The fortification of the south side of the city, for example the area between today's Protestant church, the Klevchen ridge and the cloister courtyard, which seemed more promising from a military point of view due to the topographical situation, was revised in the fortified system. It has not been clarified whether and to what extent the rest of the city area was also re-fortified. Both the Feldtor in the south of the town (located in the area of the old district court, i.e. the former Prussian District Office) and the Unterbrucher Gate in the north of the city, which was demolished in 1894, date from the 16th century and had curved and therefore bulletproof posterns . The part of the city, which was probably not secured by bastions, was already better protected from an attack by the extensive ponds on the east and west sides of the city, which today are only remembered by street names such as Haag- or Riedweiher. Nevertheless, imperial troops took Heinsberg in 1543 in the Third War of the Geldr Succession, which flared up in the dispute over the Duchy of Geldern, and partially destroyed it.
It is possible that the castle was destroyed by French troops in the so-called predatory wars of Louis XIV at the end of the 17th century; However, there is no written evidence for this. From the former castle complex, today a ground monument , there are still significant remains of the wall, but only minor remains compared to the original building, as well as remains of the city wall and the later bastioned fortress. A Randhaus castle ruin, similar to the core castle, as the seat of a dynast of a Roman-German territory in a more comprehensive state, can be found in what is now the Dutch basin on the Meuse ( Kasteel Keverberg ).
literature
- Paul Clemen (ed.), Karl Franck-Oberaspach, Edmund Renard (editor): The art monuments of the Rhine province. 8th volume, III: The art monuments of the Heinsberg district . L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1906, p. 529 ff.
- Wilhelm Piepers: Archeology in the Heinsberg district . Volume I. Heinsberg District, Heinsberg 1989, ISBN 3-925620-05-2 , p. 140.
- Peter H. Meurer : From the Motte to the Heinsberg Fortress . Questions about the city plan. In: Heimatkalender des Kreis Heinsberg 1978, p. 32 ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Severin Corsten : Heinsberg and Selfkant area. Lower Rhine history between the powers. In: Heimatkalender des Kreis Heinsberg 1988, p. 28
- ^ Severin Corsten : Heinsberg and Selfkant area. Lower Rhine history between the powers. In: Heimatkalender des Kreis Heinsberg 1988, p. 32