Reuschenberg Castle (Elsdorf)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reuschenberg Castle on a drawing by Ludwig Arntz from 1893

The castle Reuschenberg was a Wasserburg southwest of the Rhine town Elsdorf in North Rhine-Westphalia Rhein-Erft . Its roots lay in a high medieval moth that was later replaced by a stone weir system. The lords of Reuschenberg owned the castle for centuries before it came into civil ownership in the first quarter of the 19th century. The facility was demolished in 1998 as part of the Hambach I open- cast lignite mine .

history

Reuschenberg Castle on a pen drawing by Renier Roidkin

The castle was indirectly mentioned in a document in 1278 by naming a Cuno de Rusenberg. With the exception of a short break of three years, Cuno's descendants, the Lords of Reuschenberg, remained the owners of the complex until the 19th century. The brothers Johann II. And Cuno split the family into an older and a younger line, with the older line initially remaining in the possession of the family castle. In the 16th century, the von Reuschenberg family built a mighty stone tower on the site of the former motte. When the older line with Johann von Reuschenberg, court master of the Duke of Jülich died out in 1622 , Castle Reuschenberg came to the younger family line through the marriage of Johann's sister Margaretha. Margaretha's daughter Anna Maria married Hermann von Hanxler for the second time, so that Burg Reuschenberg came to the von Hanxler family when the estate was divided in 1667. She only called this her own for a short time, because Jobst Edmund von Reuschenberg zu Setterich bought it back for his family in 1670 . This remained the owner until 1745. In 1752 the plant came to Franz Ludwig Joseph Forstmeister von Gelnhausen, before it passed into civil ownership in 1813.

At the beginning of 1890 the manufacturer Johann Froitzheim from Esch bought the castle. He let her in time from 1896 to 1899 after plans of the architect Heinrich Wolff Elsdorfer in coordination with the public curator Paul Clemen enovieren and remodel. Through the marriage of Johann's daughter Maria to Wilhelm Thurn, the property passed to his family. The last change of ownership took place in 1990 when the Bachmann-Thurn family sold Reuschenberg Castle to Rheinbraun AG . This had the facility laid down in the course of the Hambach I open-cast lignite mine, with building historical investigations and excavations being carried out on the castle area from 1997 to 2000 in order to process the fragmentary history of the facility. The oldest finds unearthed in the process date to the 13th century. The helmet of the castle tower did not fall victim to the wrecking ball, but was reused on a gate in Elsdorfer Birkenweg. The Kommern open-air museum had previously considered removing the castle - or at least the tower - stone by stone and having it rebuilt in Kommern . Since this would have cost about two million DM , the project could not be financed.

description

At the castle there was a two-part brick plant with a longitudinal rectangular main castle and east of it situated outer bailey . The latter was laid down some time before the main castle, but on the Tranchot map from 1806/07 there are still farm buildings in the north-eastern and southern areas. Later, the location of the former outer bailey was only recognizable as a plateau in the area. Reuschenberg Castle used to be surrounded by a double system of forces . Before the main castle was demolished, the moats that were drained around 1924 were still recognizable as sinks in the ground. In the northern area the moat was 16 meters wide and up to 2.30 meters deep.

The main castle of Reuschenberg consisted of a mighty square tower, a residential building (the so-called manor house ) as well as additional farm buildings and two round towers on the south and east corners. By the end of the 19th century, only the foundations of the two round corner towers were left. The manor house was a two-storey brick building with stepped gables on the south-western side of the main castle area. Its masonry was plastered around the turn of the century and decorated with oval Art Nouveau patterns. For the window and door jambs was sandstone was used. A half-timbered connecting corridor led from the residential building to the striking square tower on the northwest corner of the main castle. The tower was from the 16th century and was the oldest part of the castle, where his fourth floor with Eckwarten and arched frieze only at a conversion in the historicist style in the years 1896/1897 had been placed. During this work, the slightly bent tent roof of the tower was replaced by a hipped roof and made the building 22 meters high. The four floors of the building were accessed by a spiral staircase in the north corner of the tower. The two lower floors had flat barrel vaults , while the second floor was spanned by ribbed vaults on late Gothic consoles . There was a chapel there , for which in the 17th and 18th centuries special house vicars took care of. The altar stood in the northern window niche of the chapel room .

literature

  • Bavarian State Library Munich : Redinghoven Collection, Volume 66: Jülich'scher Adel. L to Z - Codex Cgm 2213/66 . P. 222 ff.
  • Timo Bremer: Reuschenberg Castle near Elsdorf - archaeological evidence and historical sources in comparison . In: The castle in the plain. Program for the 21st annual meeting of the Wartburg Society for Research into Castles and Palaces V. Bonn 2013, no p.
  • Berthold Köster: The tower of Reuschenberg Castle. Elsdorf . In: Preservation of monuments in the Rhineland . Vol. 15, No. 3, 1998, ISSN  0177-2619 , pp. 127-131.
  • Henriette Meynen: moated castles, palaces and country houses in the Erftkreis. 3. Edition. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7927-0904-X , pp. 60-61.
  • Ernst Polaczek: The art monuments of the Bergheim district. (= The Art Monuments of the Rhine Province . Volume 4, Section 3). L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1899, pp. 56-57 ( online ).
  • Michael Schmauder: existing castles: Reuschenberg (residential tower) and excavations on a fortified courtyard in Garzweiler . In: The castle in the plain. Program for the 21st annual meeting of the Wartburg Society for Research into Castles and Palaces V. Bonn 2013, no p.
  • Michael Schmauder: The medieval castle Reuschenberg. Loss of a Rhenish aristocratic seat . In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . Vol. 38, No. 1, 2001, ISSN  0342-1805 , pp. 10-18.

Web links

Commons : Burg Reuschenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e T. Bremer: Reuschenberg Castle near Elsdorf - comparison of archaeological findings and historical sources , 2013, o. P.
  2. ↑ a b c E. Polaczek: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreis Bergheim , 1899, p. 56.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Dietmar Kinder: Burg Reuschenberg near Elsdorf , accessed on November 29, 2013.
  4. ↑ a b c H. Meynen: Wasserburgen, Schlösser und Landsitze im Erftkreis , 1985, p. 60.
  5. ↑ a b M. Schmauder: existing castles: Reuschenberg (residential tower) and excavations on a fortified courtyard in Garzweiler , 2013, o. P.
  6. ↑ Martin Sagel: Architectural monuments endangered - architectural monuments saved. North Rhine-Westphalia (Rhineland area). In: Castles and Palaces . Vol. 39, No. 2, 1998, ISSN  0007-6201 , p. 118.
  7. ↑ Martin Sagel: Architectural monuments endangered - architectural monuments saved. North Rhine-Westphalia (Rhineland area). In: Castles and Palaces . Vol. 39, No. 2, 1998, ISSN  0007-6201 , p. 117.
  8. ↑ E. Polaczek: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreis Bergheim , 1899, p. 57.

Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 27.1 ″  N , 6 ° 32 ′ 32.7 ″  E