Kranenburg Castle
| Kranenburg Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 Only the street name "Alde Börg" reminds of the former location |
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| Alternative name (s): | Crainichenburg op den Hoff, Ailderborgh, Alde Börg | |
| Creation time : | ~ 1225, first mentioned in 1270, was replaced by the city palace around 1390 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg, moth | |
| Conservation status: | Burgstall, ground monument | |
| Standing position : | Landesburg | |
| Place: | Kranenburg | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 47 '34.7 " N , 6 ° 0' 23.8" E | |
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The Kranenburg , also Crainichenburg op den Hoff , Ailderborgh , Alde Börg called, is a Outbound castle in the town of Kranenburg in North Rhine-Westphalia . There are actually two castles . The Alde Börg, a motte (tower hill castle) from the 13th century, which gave the city of Kranenburg its name, and the later built city castle made of brick , which once stood on the north side of the historic city center . Nothing is left of the buildings above ground. Both were only rediscovered after excavations.
The stable of the old Kranenburg Castle is now a ground monument and only the name of the street reveals that a castle once stood here. The area is used for agriculture. A school was built on the site of the city palace in 1960.
history
Crainichenburg op den Hoff / Op de Aldebörg
The Turmhügelburg (Motte) in the Kranenburger Bruch was built around 1225 to protect the Waldhufensiedlung on the edge of the Reichswald. Surrounded by ditches and a ring wall with oak pallisades, it was on the Via Romana, an important trade route between Nijmegen and Xanten, which was built by the Romans.
Count Dietrich IV (1185–1260) is named as the builder in more recent sources . Dietrich Luf I. , his younger son, administered the area. With the castle, the settlement on Reyerbruch received city rights in the following decades. In a document from 1270 the "Crainichenburg" was first mentioned in the "op den Hoff". In 1297 it was contractually awarded to Count von Kleve by the Zyffich Monastery as an independent fiefdom.
Kranenburg Castle is called "Crainichenburg op den Hoff" in the old documents, later "Op de Aldebörg" or "Ailderborgh".
It can no longer be determined today whether the round castle was actually named after cranes or rather the construction method in which it was built. "Crane" was also the term for long and pointed piles that served as a support structure for buildings in swampy terrain. "Op den Hoff" indicates the location in front of the settlement.
The layout of the facility can still be seen clearly on aerial photographs. It was a classic moth system with a double ditch system. Its extension was 180 meters in an east-west direction and 140 meters in a north-south direction. The castle hill, which was removed in 1733, had a diameter of around 45 meters, the crescent-shaped outer bailey 40 meters. During the straightening of Tiggelstrasse, archaeological excavations took place in the “Alde Börg” stables in the 1950s. The remains of the former mound, oak planks, roof slates and ceramic finds from the period between the 13th and 15th centuries were recovered. In a further survey of the site in 2000, relocated pieces of tufa were found, which suggest a stone building or at least a brick foundation. It is quite possible that the old Crainichenburg resembled the castle tower of Saint Barbara in the pilgrimage church .
City Palace
In the course of an inheritance dispute, Count Adolf von Kleve-Mark (1368-1394) had Alde Börg sanded down and replaced it between 1388 and 1395 with a new state castle - the city palace.
The rectangular brick building was built north of the city. A rampart with ditches was built around the city , which was later supplemented by a brick wall with two gates and nine defensive towers. This made Kranenburg a fortress that was difficult to conquer. The new castle served as the official residence for the Droste until the first half of the 16th century .
The massive brick structure was supposed to appear to the outside as a kind of giant residential tower and radiate defensibility. The building itself was a closed square with a large inner courtyard in the Gothic architectural style and a gate entrance facing into the city with up to 4 m thick foundation walls. It was surrounded by an up to 3 m thick and 20 m high circular wall with a side length of 44 m with battlements, battlements and corner guards. In the middle, above the entrance gate to the city, was a tower with a helmet roof .
Typologically it was similar to Walbeck Castle in Geldern or the disappeared moated castle of Haus Driesberg an der Niers near Goch-Kessel. A picture of the Kranenburg City Palace can be found in the pilgrimage church of St. Peter and Paul. On the right wing of the high altar is a scene of the three kings worshiping the baby Jesus. Behind the head of the black king Caspar, Bethlehem is represented by the medieval cityscape of Kranenburg with the city palace.
When Kranenburg was pledged to the von Wachtendonk gentlemen, the Drostamt was relocated to the Gemessel house, a representative moated castle, in Zyffich. Deprived of its actual function, the city palace was structurally neglected and left to decay. At the beginning of the 18th century only ruins were left. A few years later it was completely gone.
In 1931 remains of the foundations were found during canal construction work. In 1960 a school was built on the site of the former castle. So far, there have been no major excavations.
The course of the former ramparts and moats around the old town can still be clearly seen from the city fortifications. As early as 1499, parts of the city wall were destroyed by the Nijmegenern during a siege and left to decay. Around 1800 houses were built along the wall, the two city gates were demolished because they were dilapidated. On the hiking road, however, you can find restored and reconstructed remains of the city wall from the 14th century. Of the watchtowers, three defense towers and the windmill are still preserved today.
swell
- Official website of the municipality of Kranenburg - history
- Entry on the historic city center of Kranenburg in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Council , accessed on July 5, 2018.
- Entry by Jens Wroblewski zu Kranenburg, Aldebörg in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Entry by Jens Wroblewski zu Kranenburg in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Hans Peter Hilger: Kranenburg-Zyfflich (= The monuments of the Rhineland, Kleve district . Volume 5 ). Rheinland-Verlag / L. Schwan Verlag, Düsseldorf 1970, p. 11-12 .
- Eelco Hekster: Collegiate and pilgrimage church of St. Peter and Paul in Kranenburg . Eelco Hekster, 2017, p. 21-22, 50 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eelco Hekster: Fig. 7 from article: Houses with roof gables were popular in the historic center of Kranenburg. In: Lokalkompass news community for Kranenburg. Funke Medien NRW, August 9, 2015, accessed on July 5, 2018 .