Röthgen Castle

Röthgen Castle
Main castle seen from the south
Alternative name (s):	Merötgen Castle
Creation time :	around 1300 to 1348
Castle type :	Niederungsburg
Conservation status:	essential parts received
Standing position :	Ministeriale
Construction:	Quarry stone
Place:	Röthgen
Geographical location	50 ° 48 '39 "  N , 6 ° 15' 40"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 48 '39 "  N , 6 ° 15' 40"  E

The Röthgen Castle , also called Merötgen Castle , gave its name to the Röthgen district of the same name in Eschweiler , North Rhine-Westphalia . The complex, located in Burgstrasse, is a typical Lower Rhine moated castle , the majority of which date from the early 16th century.

Nowadays the complex is used as the home of the owners as well as a riding school and boarding house.

description

The core of the two-part castle complex is of Gothic origin. The outer bailey is home to a riding stables, while the inner bailey is used for private residential purposes.

The claim that an underground corridor connected the Röthgen Castle with the Nothberg Castle in the past could not be confirmed in spite of corresponding investigations and is almost impossible given the topographical conditions.

The outer bailey

The low, three-winged outer bailey is open to the two-winged inner bailey to the northwest and separated from it by a moat. The former fortresses of the partly brick- built buildings can still be seen today, but they are dry. Of the two previously existing portals , only the one in the southwest wing with its baroque basket arch gate has been preserved.

The core castle

The courtyard of the inner castle can be entered via a stone arch bridge. The irregular shape of the northern moat suggests that this was an old pond , on the bank of which the castle was built in order to then be included in the moat system of the complex.

The two preserved, two-storey building wings made of quarry stone meet at right angles, with only the south-east still showing the original building stock. Its southern corner, into which the former keep is still clearly visible, is striking here . The north-east wing was destroyed to the ground during the Second World War and was reconstructed in the 1960s based on original models. It rises above a basement with small loopholes and is closed off at its corners by two round towers with buckled helmets .

The baroque origins of the windows can be seen very clearly from the type of window. They have the typical regional bluestone frames made of flat segmental arches with a closing wedge in their upper center.

history

Residents and owners

Northeast wing with corner tower

Röthgen Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

The exact date of construction of the castle is not historically proven. Files from the 17th century attest to the castle as the ancestral seat of the Knights of Engelsdorf (called Merötgen), who had already resided there in the 13th century, although an Edmund von Röthgen (Edmuntz van me Roitgen) was not mentioned in a document until 1348. Just as unclear as the date of foundation is the relationship between the Knights of Röthgen and the Knights of Engelsdorf. According to current documents, both sexes seem to have inhabited the Röthgen castle complex in the 14th century. Historians suspect that the sister Emuntz van me Roitgens was the wife of Gerhard von Engelsdorf, who also appears as a tenant of the Nothberg castle. The only thing that is certain is that the Röthgener Castle was built to protect Jülich possessions in the confusing forest area of ​​the Voreifel and was given as a fief of the Jülich Counts .

The year 1514 on a surviving weather vane gives reason to believe that it was probably Wilhelm von der Horst zu Hurt, married to Margaretha von Engelsdorf, who had the facility fundamentally rebuilt and expanded that year, replacing an old previous building.

When the male line of Carsilius von Engelsdorf died out on February 12, 1553, the castle passed to Margaretha's granddaughter Elisabeth von der Horst zu Hurt, who had been married to Wilhelm von Harff, Herr zu Alsdorf , since 1550 . However, due to the extensive family relationships of the von Engelsdorf family, members of other branches of the family also raised claims to the facility. This was followed by protracted inheritance disputes, which only came to an end in 1691/1692 when the Röthgener Castle was awarded to Baron Karl Wilhelm von Bourscheidt and was subsequently in the possession of this Luxembourg noble family for around 250 years.

During the fighting in and around Eschweiler during the Second World War, a large part of the Röthgen plant was badly damaged. The Rath House in Eschweiler, which is also owned by Bourscheid, was not spared from damage. The family sold the castle in 1950 to Braunkohle-Industrie AG Zukunft (BIAG) in order to be able to rebuild Haus Rath with the proceeds.

In 1954, Peter Kugel acquired the ruins and the associated lands from BIAG, in order to rebuild them for private residential purposes from 1968/1969 under the direction of the Aachen cathedral master builder and city curator Leo Hugot . The Kugel family is still the owner today.

Building history

The first historically secured findings about the appearance of the castle complex did not exist until it was expanded in the early 16th century. After the end of the construction work it was a two-part complex, the two-storey core castle made of quarry stone lay on an artificially raised hill and was separated by a ditch from a lower three-winged, small outer castle. The four wings of the closed main castle were grouped around an inner courtyard, with the square keep of the previous building forming the southern end of the south-east wing. The north-eastern wing of the building encompassed the palace and had round towers at both corners.

As early as the 16th century and then again in the 17th century, the outer bailey was partially renewed using brick. Like the main castle, it was surrounded by moats fed by a forest stream.

In 1855 the owners had the facility rebuilt according to contemporary tastes and laid down the north-west and south-west wings. Only the surrounding walls on both sides have been preserved. The windows of the other two wings of the building were enlarged, only in the jamb of the top floor the original, small windows remained unchanged. The high keep was removed so that it was the same height as the south-east wing in order to get a common roof with it.

During the Second World War in 1944, the castle was seriously damaged. The southeast wing was completely destroyed and only rebuilt from 1968/1969.

literature

• Ulrich Coenen: Architectural treasures in the Aachen district. G. Mainz, Aachen 1987, ISBN 3-925714-11-1 , pp. 122-123.
• Alexander Duncker : The rural residences, castles and residences of the knightly landowners in the Prussian monarchy along with the royal family, house, Fideicommiss and Schattull goods . Volume 16. Berlin 1880–1883 ​​( PDF; 205 kB ).
• Holger A. Dux , Dirk Holtermann: The Aachen Castle Tour - Cycling between Wurm and Inde. Walter Rau, Düsseldorf 2000, ISBN 3-7919-0749-2 , p. 101 ( online ).
• Otto Merckens: Röthgen Castle. In: Heimatblätter of the district of Aachen. No. 6, 1936, pp. 1-6.
• Manfred Nimax: Castles and noble residences on the Rur, Wurm and Inde. Nimax, Aachen 2010, ISBN 978-3-936342-86-5 , pp. 73-77.
• Herbert Limpens: City of Eschweiler. (= Rheinische Kunststätten . Issue 271). Neusser Druckerei und Verlag, Neuss 1983, ISBN 3-88094-439-3 , pp. 9-11.
• Ernst von Oidtman : The Engelsdorf family, called Merötgen, owned the Merötgen Castle near Eschweiler. In: Leopold Neuhöfer (Ed.): Contributions to the history of Eschweiler and the surrounding area. Volume I. Herzog, Eschweiler 1872 ( digitized version ).
• Ernst von Oidtman: The Lords of Engelsdorf . In: Leopold Neuhöfer (Ed.): Contributions to the history of Eschweiler and the surrounding area . Volume II. Herzog, Eschweiler 1881, pp. 171-175.
• Heribert Reiners : The art monuments of the district of Aachen (= The art monuments of the Rhine Province . Volume 9, Section 2). L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1912, pp. 102-104.
• Klaus Wirtz: From the history of the Röthgener Castle. In: Heimatblätter of the district of Aachen. Vol. 21, No. 3, 1965, pp. 68-71.

Web links

Commons : Burg Röthgen  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Holger A. Dux, Dirk Holtermann: The Aachen Castle Tour - Cycling between Wurm and Inde. 200, p. 101.
2. ^ Landesarchiv NRW Rhineland Department , accessed on June 16, 2018.