Ikoven

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Gut Neu-Ikoven in Evinghoven
Gut Alt-Ikoven in Evinghoven

Ikoven is a small hamlet in Rommerskirchen - Evinghoven in the Rhine district of Neuss .

About 20 people live here, spread over two court festivals; one, called "Alt-Ikoven", from the early 17th century , the second, called "Neu-Ikoven", from the late 18th century . This also includes a civil air raid shelter from the Second World War.

Ikoven is officially marked as a separate place, but does not have its own place name sign and does not appear as such in public life. Rather, Ikoven should be seen as a "suburb" to the somewhat larger Evinghoven, which is only 400 meters away.

Not least because of its history and special location, Ikoven still plays an important role in Rommerskirchener sagas and legends: The best known is "the curse of the sexton": Around 1700 the "sexton of Ikoven" is said to have a thoroughly decent and peaceful life on the farm during the day " Ikoven "(today" Alt-Ikoven "), lending a hand to the farmers and preparing Holy Mass in the chapel on Sundays. In the evening, however, he is said to have snuck into the neighboring towns of Evinghoven and Widdeshoven and stole and robbed. He was observed by the angel farmer from Evinghoven, who revealed it to the priest. He wanted to urge him to confess, but the sexton disappeared and a short time later the angel farmer was hit by a curse that made every firstborn of the farmer " crippled ". There are other stories about the Lords of Ikoven, who had the farms built: they are said to still roam the Gillbach meadows as "Knights of Gillbach" on clear moonlit nights, probably because they left their heads in a skirmish with the Lords of Anstel . There is also talk of a kind of local " Jack-the-Ripper " from the time of the French occupation , who stayed in Ikoven during the day as the French commander . More modern sagas are about the buried bunker, in which gold is hidden, what the Nazis hid there when the British and Americans moved in. This is still guarded by an old soldier today.

The air raid shelter

The civil air raid shelter on Widdeshovenerstraße was built in 1944 as an underground bunker. The circular building of the air raid shelter on the lowest level with a diameter of approx. 7 m has a column approx. 2.30 m thick in the middle, which supports the concrete vault. The floor area is approx. 34 m². The circumference is approx. 22 m. The emergency exit leads to Alt-Ikoven's property

  • The bunker entrance

  • Access to the air raid shelter

  • The air raid shelter

  • The emergency exit

Coordinates: 51 ° 5 '  N , 6 ° 41'  E