House Zelem

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
House Zelem, view from the southeast

Haus Zelem (also Selem, Selhem, Selm, Zelhem or Zelm) is a former knight's seat on the edge of the Kranenburg district of Mehr . The moated castle lies in the heart of the Düffel and was listed as a property of the Echternach Abbey as early as the 12th century .

Name variants

There are different spellings for Zelem, including Selheim, Selceim, Zelem, Selhem, Selm, Selom, Zeelem, Zelm and Zelhem. They can be explained on the one hand by the ignorance of the non-local scribes who wrote the fief lists up to the 14th century and were often unable to decipher the templates themselves, on the other hand, the differences between the German and Dutch languages ​​are also reflected. In the Mehrer School, which existed before 1682, the Dutch language was taught until 1840. Today the complex bears the name Burg Zelem, which can also be found on signposts and information texts of the community.

history

House Zelem front view

Owner and owner

Together with his wife Adela, Count Balderich had a stone moth built as a residential tower (similar to Upladen Castle) shortly before the turn of the millennium , but it was removed again shortly afterwards. Both donated these stones to the construction of a pen at St. Martin's Church in Zyfflich, which was inaugurated in 1003. The oldest record is now in the National Library of Paris, a zutphenscher feudal levy entry or entry of the goods of the Abbey of Echternach from the early 12th century.

Around 1320 the town and state of Kranenburg were given as pledge to Gerhard von Horn . His son Dietrich inherited the land of Kranenburg and became master of Zelem. In the first half of the 14th century Zelem belonged to the Klevischen Land Kranenburg and in 1348 it was given to Gysbrecht von Groesbeek , before it was given to Rutger von Groesbeek in 1373, who later became the owner of Boetzelaer Castle .

In 1377 the castle went to the knight Hermann van Eyll as a fiefdom and open house of the county of Kleve from Count Adolf von Kleve-Mark . In 1414 Johann von Alpen , Herr zu Hönnepel , was enfeoffed with the rule of Zelem by the count's son of the same name. By marrying the granddaughter Adriane von Alpen († 1502/07) with Werner III. von Palant , the estate passed into the possession of the von Palant family in 1464.

In the 15th century, the aristocratic seat came to the Palant- Wylich families , in whose hands it remained for centuries. Later followed, also by marriage, the von Wylich zu Diersfordt family , whose coat of arms is still above the portal . Prince Elector Wilhelm von Brandenburg was instructed in the art of war by Moritz von Nassau in 1635 during a visit to the knight's hall of the castle, which is now back in its original condition . Around this time the Spaniards occupied the Rhine-Düffelfestung Schenkenschanz , which was besieged by the Dutch and Brandenburgers. Baron Karl Alexander von und zu Hertefeld is listed as the next owner, followed by Walter Freiherr von Esebeck in 1867. In 1912 the dikemaster of Keeken, Gerhard Hülskens, bought the castle and parts of the property belonging to it, and in 1926 K. Arden acquired the property, which he leased. The Zelem castle complex has been owned by the Jochen Arden family since 2000 .

Building history

Between the 10th and 13th centuries there was a major expansion of the state in the entire Lower Rhine region. Zelem emerged from a moth . As a defense system and economic unit, it represented special protection against enemy marches through this flat landscape. Important elements of a moated castle are towers built into the surrounding walls . The building fabric of Zelem shows all of these early features, but the surrounding moat is only preserved in the south today. Because the castles in the border area served the sovereign as an outpost to secure the border, Haus Zelem under Hermann von Eyl functioned as an open house for the Counts of Kleve in the second half of the 14th century . From the 14th century Zelem came across in the springs as a Klevian castle. Zelem was important for Kleve in the territorial dispute with the emerging land of Kranenburg.

Like the Burg Boetzelaer castle, today's complex is only a torso of the original one. The formerly three-storey building has changed in the 16th century an expansion of the Renaissance - castle with mighty gables and curly hoods on today covered with simple tent roofs towers. A pen drawing by Jan de Beijer from 1745 reproduces this. There, the main wing, which is one floor higher, has two side wings on the front, which form a courtyard. The castle is still surrounded by the moat, in the axis of the rear corner tower a free-standing round tower on the edge of the castle island can be seen; the farm building opposite the castle did not yet exist. Around 1800 the structure of the building was greatly reduced and the complex was dismantled down to the main wing.

description

It can be assumed that the current structure of the three-wing complex largely belongs to the first half of the 15th century. The plant has two corner towers, one of which a sandstone frieze with ornaments bears, mythical creatures and human heads, and a stair tower . The stone portal is adorned with the coat of arms of the Palant family and the year 1464. They document the beginning of the extensive renovation phase during the Renaissance . The Palant coat of arms can also be found in several places inside the castle. The room on the ground floor of the east tower comes from this early construction phase and is particularly well preserved. The tower room has a star vault and is equipped with a Renaissance fireplace. The well-preserved star vault shows the Palant coat of arms, and the large sandstone chimney with Renaissance decor is also adorned with the coat of arms.

Another fireplace is located on the upper floor of the east tower, the wall of which is decorated with clay tablets. They show biblical scenes. In the basement under the east tower, which is accessible via the spiral staircase in the entrance tower, there is an open fireplace, which was probably used as a cooking place by the residents of the castle complex during a siege . There is also a cistern near the south tower that provided fresh water to the besieged. The Haustein provided with light slots in the course of the spiral staircase of the east tower served in times of war after advent of firearms as loopholes . In the stair tower there is a dungeon in the upper entrance to the cellar vault . It was speculated that an underground corridor ran from the cellar under the former farm buildings to Kranenburg.

literature

  • Hans-Peter Hilger: House Zelm, knight's seat in the Düffel. In: Calendar for the Klever Land to the year 1971. Boss, Kleve 1970, ISSN  0174-0520 , pp. 40–41.
  • Hans-Peter Hilger: Kleve district. Volume 5: Kranenburg - Zyfflich (= The monuments of the Rhineland. Volume 7). Rheinland-Verlag Schwann, Düsseldorf 1970, pp. 48–51.
  • Simon Hopf: Where a castle plays hide and seek. In: My Rhineland. Volume 7, No. 4, 2017, pp. 70–73 ( PDF ; 376 kB).
  • Association for homeland security (ed.): Kranenburg. A home book. Kranenburg 1984, p. 113, 198-199.
  • Robert Scholten: A few things about the Düffel and the localities in the same. Kleve 1903, p. 8.
  • Gregor Spohr, Ele Beuthner: How nice to dream away here. Castles on the Lower Rhine. Pomp, Bottrop / Essen 2001, ISBN 3-89355-228-6 , pp. 98-101.
  • Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 154-155 .

Web links

Commons : Haus Zelem  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hans-Peter Hilger: Kleve district. Volume 5: Kranenburg - Zyfflich. 1970, p. 48.
  2. ↑ Stefan Frankewitz : State castles, fortresses, palaces and fortress houses up to 1500 as reflected in the written documents (= Historical Atlas of the Rhineland. Supplement IV / 12). Habelt, Bonn 2007, ISBN 978-3-7749-3519-8 , p. 71.
  3. ↑ Gregor Spohr, Ele Beuthner: How nice to dream away here. 2001, p. 98.
  4. ^ Association for homeland security (ed.): Kranenburg. A home book. 1984, p. 198.
  5. ^ Entry on Haus Zelem in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Council , accessed on December 20, 2019.
  6. ↑ Ludwig Schmitz-Kallenberg (edit.): Inventories of the non-state archives of the province of Westphalia. Münster administrative district, volume I. Documents of the Princely Salm-Salm'schen Archives in Anholt, the Princely Salm-Horstmar'schen Archives in Coesfeld and the Ducal Croy'schen Domain Administration in Dülmen. Aschendorff, Münster 1902 and 1904, p. 33, no.17 ( digitized version ).
  7. ^ Carl Wilkes, Rudolf Brandts: Inventory of the documents of the archive of Diersfordt Castle near Wesel. Fredebeul & Koenen, Essen 1957, No. 64.
  8. ↑ Günther Elf: On Niedrrhein. Prestel, Munich 1979.
  9. ^ A b Bert Thissen: Zelm in Kranenburg-Mehr. In: Calendar for the Klever Land to the year 2014. Boss, Kleve 2013, ISSN  0174-0520 , p. 3.

Coordinates: 51 ° 49 ′ 6 ″  N , 6 ° 1 ′ 53 ″  E