Castle weather

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Castle weather
View from Harkortsee to the castle ruins

View from Harkortsee to the castle ruins

Creation time : 1250 to 1274
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Keep, remains of the wall of the palace
Standing position : Count
Place: Weather (Ruhr)
Geographical location 51 ° 23 '21.5 "  N , 7 ° 24' 1"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 23 '21.5 "  N , 7 ° 24' 1"  E
Height: 100  m above sea level NN

The Wetter Castle on Harkortsee at about 100 meters above sea level. NN in the city of Wetter (Ruhr) was one of the most important castles in the Ruhr Valley . Today it is in ruins and is located near the town hall of Wetter in the area of ​​the historical freedom Wetter on a foothill of the Ardey Mountains . The Brandenburg counts administered their possessions on the Ruhr from here.

The Höhenburg ruin and the castle tower, the ruin of the keep , are registered as architectural monuments No. 24 and 25 in the monument list of Wetter . The facility is the location of the industrial heritage route .

history

In connection with the naming of the noblemen Bruno and Friedrich de Wettere, the place name Wetter appears in the documents for the first time in 1214. More recently the nobles have also been called knights , but there is no evidence that the von Wetter family belonged to the knighthood. The castle was built between 1250 and 1274 by the Counts of the Mark, presumably as an outpost against Volmarstein Castle in Cologne . Count Engelbert I von der Mark bequeathed the castle on January 28, 1274 as a wedding present to his son Count Eberhard I von der Mark for his marriage to Irmgard von Berg.

From 1300 the Wetter office and from 1324 also Volmarstein were administered from the Wetter Castle . Liberty and the village, which formed an administrative unit, received the liberty privilege in 1355 . This meant local self-government, limited local jurisdiction and the right to elect a mayor.

During the Soest feud from 1444 to 1449, the Brandenburg bailiff Craft Stecken was besieged at the castle by Cologne and Bohemian associations. From the 16th century the castle fell into disrepair due to lack of use.

Alfred Rethel : The Harkort factory at Burg Wetter, around 1834

With the establishment of the Kleve-Märkisches Bergamt in the Freiheit Wetter, the town received decisive impulses for its future, especially after Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom Stein became director of the mining authorities in 1784. After moving the mining office to Bochum , Friedrich Harkort (1793–1880) founded the mechanical workshops Harkort & Co. , one of the first mechanical engineering companies, in the vacant castle with Heinrich Kamp (1786–1853) and with the help of the English technician Edward Thomas in the Ruhr area . In addition to steam engines, the factory also produced gas lighting equipment. In 1824 the company changed its name to "Harkort, Thomas & Co". Today nothing can be seen of the factories.

tourism

The ground-level entrance to the castle tower was only added in modern times.

A visit to the castle ruins is usually associated with exploring the neighboring half-timbered district of Freedom with its many historically significant houses. Among other things, there is also Friedrich Harkort's house, which is now used as the city archive. A notice board at the parking lot near the castle tower provides clear information about the "freedom of the weather".

Parts of the castle ruins are freely accessible all day, especially a side tower as a popular vantage point high above the Harkortsee. The keep and the remains of the residential building ( Palas ), however, can only be viewed from the outside and are not accessible to the public.

See also

literature

  • Kai Olaf Arzinger: ramparts, castles, mansions. a historical hiking guide, with numerous sketches and photos. Hagen-Hohenlimburg 1991, DNB 992050448 .
  • Kai Olaf Arzinger: The castle weather. In: Hagen home calendar. 1989.
  • Stephanie Marra : The Wetter Castle on the Ruhr. In: Ministry for Building and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia / Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (Hrsg.): Burgen AufRuhr. On the way to 100 castles, palaces and mansions in the Ruhr region . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8375-0234-3 , pp. 146-148.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Buschmann: Wetter ad Ruhr, contribution to the history of the homeland . Commissionsverlag Carl Edelhoff Wwe., Wetter ad Ruhr 1901, p. 24, 126 .