Niederberg Castle

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Niederberg Castle
Niederberg Castle, aerial photo (2015)

The castle Niedernberg is located in the southernmost tip of Erftstadt at the exit of the village Niedernberg . The origins of the moated castle go back to the 12th and 13th centuries. Century back.

history

The Cologne cathedral dean had in Niederberg a manorial whose Fronhof was the predecessor of today's castle. In a record of the income from the hospital at the Margaret Chapel by Domdechant Ulrich from around 1193, the court and mayor in Niederberg are mentioned for the first time. On set days of the year, the brothers in the hospital were delivered in kind and money from the court in Niederberg. In 1254, the knight Heinrich called Mönch leased the Hof zu Niederberg (curtem de Berge propre Vrishem) from Domdechant Goswin with the mayor's office as a half-winner . He had to live in the yard with his family and keep buildings and trenches in order.

Around 1450 Johann von Linzenich sold the castle and the associated farmland with the consent of his liege, the Cologne cathedral dean, to Rembold von Üxheim, whose daughter Maria married Otto von Metternich in 1497 . According to the will of the married couple Otto von Metternich / Maria von Üxheim, their son Gerhard became the heir of Haus Niederberg, who in 1555 was named Schultheiß zu Niederberg. Gerhard's widow Ottilie von Stein received the income from the Niederberg family as body breeding . After her death in 1592, Johann von Metternich succeeded his uncle Gerhard.

When an inheritance was divided in 1698, Theresia Catharina von Metternich, abbess of the Gerresheim monastery , Haus Niederberg fell to. Instead of the house in danger of collapsing, she had a new building built in 1710. The wood was supplied by Niederberger Busch, bricks were burned on site with Eschweiler coal . House stones for the window frames came from Nideggen , for the main portal they were transported by ship from Königswinter to Bonn and transported overland from there. In 1739 Theresia Catharina von Metternich sold the Niederberg aristocratic seat, which was eligible for parliament, to the von Quadt zu Buschfeld brothers . In 1750 Haus Niederberg and Haus Buschfeld were married to the von der Leyen family in Adendorf .

During the time of the French administration and in the following decades, Niederberg Castle was sold several times. Since 1869 the castle has belonged to the married couple Gerhard and Anna Maria Wahlen, née Tippmann. Until 1920 the castle was owned by the Wahlen family, most recently by Wilhelm Hugo Wahlen. The changing owners of the castle also included Anton Guffanti - the owner of the Niederberger Gertrudenhof - and from 1930 to 1935 Consul von Fuchs, who fundamentally renovated the castle house inside and out. Niederberg Castle has been owned by the Berkenkamp family since 1936, and they carried out further renovations between 1950 and 1970. During the work carried out in 1970, the oak piles of the first castle house still preserved, on which the present one stands, were found in the moat.

Today's plant

Gatehouse and farm building

A private path runs from the street along a wall to the gatehouse, the entrance to the castle complex, which is a little lower down. Of the buildings adjoining the gatehouse to the right and left, a half-timbered farm building with tiled compartments has been preserved as part of the former outer bailey. The water level in the moats surrounding the manor is regulated by a lock on the Rotbach . Instead of a drawbridge , a brick bridge now leads to the entrance of the manor house, a baroque building from 1710. The two-storey plastered mansion with a hipped roof is laid out in the shape of a horseshoe. The side wings were added around 1900. In the front garden of the large castle garden, stone grave crosses from the old Niederberg cemetery are set up.

monument

The castle was entered under no. 037 on August 13, 1982 in the list of monuments of the city of Erftstadt. See the list of architectural monuments in Niederberg (Erftstadt) .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leonard Ennen: Sources on the history of the city of Cologne, vol. I. No. 112. Cologne 1860
  2. ^ Historical archive of the city of Cologne, inventory of the Domstift deed No. 2/231, published in Karl and Hanna Stommel: Sources for the history of the city of Erftstadt. Vol. I. No. 85. Erftstadt 1990
  3. ↑ Peter Simons: Niederberg pp. 17-25
  4. ^ Henriette Meynen: moated castles, palaces and country houses in the Erftkreis . P. 154