Seffent Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seffent Castle seen from the east

The castle Seffent is a medieval castle in Seffent , a northwestern suburb of Aachen . Its history goes back to the Carolingian era.

Erected as a supply farm for the Lotharingian duchy, Seffent Castle developed into a four-wing complex with well-fortified, architectural elements in the 17th century. After extensive restoration , which saved the building from final ruin, it is now home to apartments.

description

The castle is a four-wing complex made of sandstone-colored rubble . Once surrounded by moats , it has a round tower with a conical helmet on the north corner and a massive, semicircular defense tower on the eastern corner. Most of the current structure dates from the Thirty Years' War and the 18th century. Inside the facility has three old chimneys.

history

The complex, which was still called Seffenter Hof at that time, was first mentioned in a document in 896, when the Lotharingian Duke Zwentibold gave the estate to his cousin, Abbess Gisela , and thus to Nivelles monastery. Further documents testify that Emperor Heinrich III. left the property to the Aachen Marienstift in 1028 . So the court must have reverted to the kingdom beforehand .

There are no records of the castle for the next 500 years or so, so its history remains in the dark during this time. In the first half of the 17th century - building on remains from the 16th century - a new mansion and the two corner towers of the castle were built. A drawing by the Aachen architect Laurenz Mefferdatis from 1722 shows Seffent Castle as a two-part complex, the halves of which were separated from each other by a wall. In the 18th century the castle belonged to the esteemed Bouget family from Aachen , who leased it to the Chevalier de Bellegarde in 1780. At the end of the 18th century the mansion was extended and given a triangular gable .

After the Second World War , the dilapidated and threatened facility changed hands several times. Attempts to make it habitable after 1962 were initially unsuccessful. The restoration could not be completed until 1985 - after several attempts. In the course of this work, the castle's premises were redesigned into 14 apartments and a restaurant.

literature

  • Karl Emmerich Krämer: Castles in and around Aachen . 1st edition. Mercator, Duisburg 1984, ISBN 3-87463-113-3 , p. 23.
  • Wolfgang Richter, Wolfgang Peukert: The beautiful houses of Aachen . Westarp, Mülheim 1986, ISBN 3-923456-35-2 , p. 153.

Web links

Commons : Burg Seffent  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ KE Krämer: Castles in and around Aachen , p. 23.
  2. ↑ ayhombre.de ( Memento from June 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 50 ° 47 ′ 22.5 ″  N , 6 ° 2 ′ 28 ″  E