Godesburg

This article deals with the castle ruins near Bad Godesberg. For the ship of the same name, see Godesburg (ship) .

Godesburg
The ruins of the Godesburg (2005)
Creation time :	1210
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	partially restored ruin
Standing position :	Clerical
Place:	Bonn- Bad Godesberg
Geographical location	50 ° 41 '6.4 "  N , 7 ° 9' 2.4"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 41 '6.4 "  N , 7 ° 9' 2.4"  E
Height:	122  m

The Godesburg was probably as Fliehburg at Bad Godesberg am Rhein - now in Bonn district of Alt-Godesberg from the - in the district of Bad Godesberg francs built. The keep of today's ruin is at 122 meters above sea level. NN , the platform there allows a unique view over the Rhine Valley.

history

The hilltop castle is located on the Godesberg (now known as the Burgberg) , a volcano that went extinct in prehistoric times and is the only prominent elevation in the Godesberg Rhine valley funnel. An already Roman settlement was proven by an altar stone walled into the Godesburg. In 722 the mountain was mentioned in a document as the Ubian cult site Woudensberg ( Wotansberg ).

On October 15, 1210, the Archbishop of Cologne , Dietrich I von Hengebach, laid the foundation stone for a new building. Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden extended the castle in 1244 to the first five floors of the keep . Archbishop Walram von Jülich increased this to 32 meters and had the outer bailey built.

During the Reformation , the Archbishop of Cologne, Gebhard I von Waldburg, violated the Augsburg religious peace when he married Countess Agnes von Mansfeld and converted to Calvinism . He thus triggered the Truchsessian War . Troops of the newly elected Elector Ernst von Bayern besieged the complex in 1583. The Godesburg was destroyed by the wall being blown up in the course of an attack. The conquest succeeded on December 17th, 1583, when a Catholic mercenary was able to get into the castle through the toilet . Other attackers followed him on the same route, so that the crew, threatened inside and outside the partially destroyed walls, ultimately had to surrender.

In 1891 Kaiser Wilhelm II donated the ruins to what was then Godesberg.

In May 1951, 22 Kösener Corps founded the "Interest Group " on the Godesburg , the forerunner of the reconstituted Kösener Seniors' Convents Association .

In 1959 the castle was rebuilt according to plans by Gottfried Böhm . At the beginning, an extension housed a hotel-restaurant, today only the restaurant is in operation. The former hotel wing - divided into smaller apartments - is rented. The city of Bonn offers the possibility of a civil wedding in the Godesburg on selected dates.

In the Bad Godesberg castle cemetery near the Michael’s Chapel there are many richly designed graves of the upper class from the 19th century. The politician Herbert Wehner , the film actor Paul Kemp and the famous landlady Aennchen Schumacher also found their final resting place here.

The Godesburg during the renovation of the keep in April 2013

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  The destruction of Godesburg in 1583

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  The Godesburg before it was destroyed (Merian engraving from 1646)

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  Drawing of the Godesburg on a church window, created around 1506; the only surviving representation of the castle before its destruction in 1583

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  Copper engraving of the "Ruin zu Gottesberg" and the vines existing there from 1792

Large parts of the Godesburg have been renovated in recent years. By 2003, the city of Bonn had spent 2.7 million euros on the renovation of the gastronomy. In June 2006 the renovation of the keep was completed, in which a small information center on the history of the castle was set up. In July 2006, the city of Bonn had orientation boards attached to the viewing platform on the top of the tower in all four directions. The keep was renovated from September 2012 to February / March 2014 and was scaffolded for it. The courtyard of the Godesburg can be reached via an elevator.

Panoramic view of Bad Godesberg and the Siebengebirge from Godesburg

Votive stone

The Aesculapian stone

A replica of a Roman votive stone from around AD 200 has been installed in the courtyard since 1981 . It was consecrated to the healing gods Aesculapia and Hygia and was found in 1583 on the Godesburg.

literature

• Tanja Potthof: The Godesburg - archeology and building history of an electoral Cologne castle . (PDF; 1.8 MB) Dissertation Munich 2009.
• Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich: "... like a monarch enthroned in the middle of his court". Castles on the Lower Middle Rhine . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7954-2210-3 , pp. 68-73.
• Paul Clemen : The art monuments of the city and the district of Bonn . L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1905, pp. 278–290 (= Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz , Volume 5, Section 3, pp. 574–586). (Unchanged reprint Verlag Schwann, Düsseldorf 1981, ISBN 3-590-32113-X ) ( Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : Godesburg  - Collection of Images

• Entry on Godesburg in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
• Godesberg. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 11, Leipzig 1735, column 48.
• Virtual tour and historical pictures

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tanja Potthoff: The Godesburg - archeology and building history of an electoral Cologne castle . (PDF; 1.8 MB) Dissertation, University of Munich, 2009, p. 26.
2. ^ Godesburg: The renovation of the keep starts in June , Federal City of Bonn, March 2, 2012
3. ↑ The renovation of the keep has begun , General-Anzeiger , September 25, 2012
4. ↑ Renovation of the tower of the Godesburg. Wallpeckers at lofty heights , General-Anzeiger, December 12, 2012
5. ↑ Renovation takes longer due to freak weather , General-Anzeiger, September 5, 2013
6. ↑ Godesburg keep is being unveiled again: renovation shortly before completion , press release from the city of Bonn, February 20, 2014