Hohenlimburg Castle

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View of Hohenlimburg Castle near Hagen, once the residence of the County of Limburg

The Hohenlimburg Castle is the only extensively preserved in the original medieval state hilltop castle in Westphalia. Located on the Schlossberg of Hohenlimburg in North Rhine-Westphalia , the ensemble of town and castle is also known as the Westphalian Heidelberg because of its picturesque location . In 1975 the city of Hohenlimburg was incorporated into the city of Hagen .

The complex dates back to the 13th century. Until 1807/08 the castle was the political center and administrative seat of the then existing county of Limburg . Significant renovations took place in the middle of the 16th century and in the first half of the 18th century, when the castle was the seat of the Counts of Bentheim-Tecklenburg . From 1816/17 to 1830 the castle served the princes as the main residence; it was then moved back to Rheda Castle , which is still the residence of the Prince of Bentheim-Tecklenburg today; Hohenlimburg Castle is also in his possession.

location

View through the gatehouses
Castle courtyard
Main building of the castle
A cenotaph in the courtyard
Newly designed battlement with an excellent view of Hohenlimburg
Keep and well

Hohenlimburg Castle is one of the few hilltop castles in Westphalia that has largely been preserved in its original structural form . It is located at the entrance to the Lennetal , which has more castles and aristocratic residences on its way into the Sauerland . The castle is part of the Stoppelberg nature reserve .

history

Count Dietrich I von Altena-Isenberg had the castle built on a mountain spur above the Lenne valley around or shortly after 1240. In the course of the 13th century it developed into the residence of the lineage of this count's house. It was also the nucleus of the county of Limburg , with which the heir of the executed Friedrich von Isenberg had to come to terms in a peace treaty with the Counts of the Mark on May 1, 1243. The castle was first mentioned in a document in 1242.

Some local researchers suspect that Dietrich I. von Isenberg-Limburg had a palisade- fortified hill fort built, the remains of which are today about 400 m further south, the Seven Ditches on the Schleipenberg . However, there are no archaeological or written sources for these speculations. The type of construction of this castle also suggests an older date. In addition, it was customary in castle building in the Middle Ages to fortify the intended and most suitable building site for a castle so that no counterfoundation at this point by e.g. B. to enable opposing troops. It is therefore likely that the location of today's Hohenlimburg Castle was also the place where medieval Limburg was founded.

In 1288, Count Eberhard I von der Mark conquered Limburg. In 1300 the knight Sobbo de Svirte took the castle, but later gave it back to the Counts of the Mark. The Limburg was not returned to Count Dietrich III until 1304 . from Limburg . In a feud between the Counts of Limburg-Broich and the Counts of Neuenahr , who had inherited the property by marriage from the last representative of the then-extinct older lineage of the Count's House of Limburg, Limburg was besieged and taken by troops of the Counts in 1459 von Limburg from the House of Broich and their allies.

Since 1460, the Count's houses Limburg-Broich and Neuenahr shared ownership, which in the Limburg-Broich case fell to Count Wirich V. von Daun-Falkenstein between 1509 and 1542 . From 1542 to 1589 the Counts of Neuenahr were the sole regents, from 1592 to 1807/08 the castle and county belonged to the Counts of Bentheim-Tecklenburg. In 1584 the Hohenlimburg and the territory were conquered by the Electorate of Cologne and remained occupied until 1610.

During the Thirty Years' War , Hohenlimburg was besieged in 1633 by imperial troops under General Sergeant Lothar Dietrich von Bönninghausen and served as quarters until 1636. The outer bailey and the buildings located there, including the medieval half-tower, were destroyed by fire when the troops withdrew.

In the 17th century there was a change from a castle to a castle mainly aimed at representation. When the Bentheim residence was relocated from Rheda to Hohenlimburg between 1729 and 1756, Count Moritz Casimir I von Bentheim-Tecklenburg led to the expansion of the palace as a residence and the creation of gardens in the late Baroque style. Nevertheless, Hohenlimburg Castle was still one of the fortresses in the Prussian sphere of influence during the Seven Years' War . In 1762 there was a cannonade by troops of the Duke of Braunschweig-Hanover . At that time the castle was occupied by French units.

The battlements of the castle were monument of the month in Westphalia-Lippe in August 2005 . The castle has been operating as a non-profit GmbH since 2005. Today it is owned by Prince Maximilian zu Bentheim-Tecklenburg .

Worth seeing

After the catering has been closed and the museums have closed, the castle grounds are only accessible for events. It is possible to get married in the castle. In summer, a family tour is offered on Sundays at 3 p.m. and a normal castle tour at 4 p.m. The castle games and a Christmas market take place at the castle every year.

Today the outer bailey and main bailey and in particular the palas , the gatehouses , the curtain walls and the keep from the 13th and 14th centuries as well as various residential and work buildings from the 16th to the 18th centuries have been preserved.

A famous exhibit is the deliberately mummified "black hand". According to a legend, Count Dietrich von Isenberg-Limburg had his son cut off this hand because he had hit his mother. In fact, it is a medieval or early modern body mark (here: a dead hand ) B. Severed murder victims to preserve evidence. But severed hands were also a sign of a truce , which z. B. was closed after feuds between the parties. Such legal contracts are also documented several times for Limburg in the late Middle Ages. The location of the "Black Hand", the old archive of the tower destroyed by lightning in 1811, speaks for both theses. A Radiocarbon dating showed that the hand is from the 16th century. The year 1546 plus / minus 60 years was determined, a more precise dating is not possible. Scientists found it was a right hand, likely that of an adult male. All the phalanxes of the fingers are missing, as well as part of the carpal bones . In the opinion of the researcher, a remnant of cord on the thumb indicates an older label. The scientists did not find chops, cuts, diseases or ulcers . Rather, this indicates that it is the hand of a victim, not a perpetrator.

Former museums

Former cold rolling museum
Fürstensaal

Hohenlimburg Museum and Hagen Prehistory Museum

The Hohenlimburg Museum has been dealing with Hohenlimburg history since 1927. After Hohenlimburg was incorporated into Hagen, the Hagen Prehistory Museum was also founded in 1974 from the holdings of the Hohenlimburg Museum , which occupied three rooms in the castle. As a result of the reorganization of the Hagen museums, both museums were given up in 2002 and exhibits were handed over to the Hagen Historical Center . Their exhibits can be seen in the Hagen City Museum and the Museum of Prehistory and Early History at Werdringen Castle.

Castle museum courtly living culture

The castle has been operating as a non-profit GmbH since the beginning of 2005, which also primarily presents “courtly living culture” and the history of the counts and princes of Bentheim-Tecklenburg in the castle museum .

German Cold Rolling Museum

After years of dispute between the lord of the castle and the Friends of the German Cold Rolling Museum and fewer than 1000 visitors in the first half of 2017, the privately operated German Cold Rolling Museum left the castle. The museum, which has been housed in the former farm building and in the medieval hall since 1988, has stored its exhibits. A future exhibition space could be found in the LWL open-air museum in Hagen .

literature

  • Kai Olaf Arzinger: ramparts, castles, mansions - a historical hiking guide. Hagen-Hohenlimburg 1991.
  • Hartmut Platte: Rheda, Hohenlimburg, Tecklenburg. Past and present of the princes of Bentheim-Tecklenburg. German Princely Houses, No. 2. Werl 2000.
  • Ralf Blank : The Hohenlimburg castle cannons - artillery pieces with a checkered history. In: Military and Society in the Early Modern Age 5, 2001, 2, pp. 165–170.
  • Widbert Felka: New splendor at Hohenlimburg Castle. In: Hohenlimburger Heimatblätter 18, 2006, pp. 71–90.
  • Widbert Felka: On the reopening of the battlements of Hohenlimburg Castle. In: Hohenlimburger Heimatblätter 68, 2007, 5, pp. 145–157, 167–170.
  • Widbert Felka: The regained gardens of Hohenlimburg Castle. In: Hohenlimburger Heimatblätter 68, 2007, 10, pp. 325–337, 347f.
  • Ralf Blank: Hohenlimburg Castle . In: Aufruhr 1225! Knights, castles and intrigues - the Middle Ages on the Rhine and Ruhr. Exhibition at the LWL-Museum für Aräologie, Westfälisches Landesmuseum Herne, February 27 to November 28, 2010. Mainz 2010, ISBN 978-3-8053-4108-0 , pp. 536-537.
  • Stephanie Marra : Hohenlimburg Castle and the "Seven Trenches" . 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, pp. 221–225.

See also

Web links

Commons : Hohenlimburg Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Torsten Capelle: Wall castles in Westphalia-Lippe. Published by the Antiquities Commission for Westphalia, Münster 2010 ISSN  0939-4745 , p. 12 No. II (Early Castles in Westphalia special volume 1) .
  2. ^ Extract from the Cold Rolling Museum, article Westfalenpost from August 9, 2017
  3. ↑ History of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History , accessed on August 3, 2018
  4. ↑ Cold waltzes leave Hohenlimburg Castle, article Westfalenpost from August 8, 2017

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 42.6 "  N , 7 ° 34 ′ 14.2"  E