Lechenich State Castle
| Lechenich State Castle | |
|---|---|
 Lechenich State Castle |
|
| Alternative name (s): | Lechenich Castle |
| Creation time : | Early 14th century |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg |
| Conservation status: | essential parts received |
| Standing position : | Archbishops, Electors |
| Construction: | Brick |
| Place: | Lechenich old town |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 48 '7 " N , 6 ° 46' 6.7" E |
The former Landesburg Lechenich of the Archbishops and Electors of Cologne is today in a semicircle surrounded by parks in the northeast corner of the old town of Lechenich . The moated castle , which was built in field fire bricks at the beginning of the 14th century and protected by ditches , has also been called a castle since the 16th century . The country castle was one of the most powerful Rhine castles . The Landesburg had a predecessor in the southwest of the city, which was destroyed in 1301.
The first state castle
The castle, first named as curia in 1138, was located in the southwest of today's old town on an area of about one and a half hectares. In 1185 Archbishop Philipp von Heinsberg moved in the Lechenich bailiwick with its rights and duties, which the Counts of Hengebach had previously held as fiefs, and transferred administration and jurisdiction to archbishop officials. A bailiff / mayor (1203 mayor Hermann) took over the administration and, together with the lay judges, the jurisdiction in the castle, which was also the administrative and court seat of the Lechenich office .
The old castle complex was built on a motte with a residential tower , which was surrounded by wide moats fed by the Rotbach , now known as the Mühlenbach . The buildings in the outer bailey were also surrounded by other protective moats. This mighty fortification, later called the old castle, was also surrounded by an earth wall.
Lechenich was also affected by the territorial battles of the 13th century between the Archbishops of Cologne and the Dukes of Brabant and the Counts of Jülich . During this period the old castle, the castrum Lechenich, was besieged several times, but could not be captured. Also in the dispute between Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden and the city of Cologne , the castle was important for the archbishop, who abducted Cologne patricians to Lechenich and imprisoned them in the castle.
In 1289, after the Battle of Worringen , the castle was pledged as security to Count von Berg , who owned it until 1292.
During a dispute between King Albrecht I and the Archbishop of Cologne Wigbold von Holte over the Rhine tolls , the king appointed Count Gerhard von Jülich as bailiff of peace, who with his allies destroyed the old castle and the city fortifications that were still under construction on the king's orders in 1301.
The former moat is still faintly visible on the site of the current owners. On the tranchot map from 1810, the trenches are still open.
Construction and fortification of the new state castle
In 1306, the Archbishop of Cologne, Heinrich II of Virneburg (1305–1332), with the permission of King Albrecht, began building a new castle within the city. The residential tower , which Paul Clemen called the keep , was built between 1306 and 1317. During the tenure of Archbishops Walram von Jülich (1332-1349) and his successor Wilhelm von Gennep (1349-1362), they had the castle expanded like a fort. Two wide moats secured the facility. The outer moat surrounded the entire area, the inner moat enclosed the main castle. The city, fortified with walls and moats , offered further protection .
Building with field fire bricks was a new technique at that time, which had been reintroduced to Germany by the Staufers from Italy (after Roman times). The Landesburg was probably the first large-scale building to use this technology. Nevertheless, trachyte from the Drachenfels was used on the corners and the window frames . After the persecution of the Jews in 1349, tombstones from the abandoned Jewish cemetery in Cologne were re-hewn and used as spolia in the outer and main castle . The tombstone of Mar Jacob at the gate of the outer bailey is well preserved .
Outside, the five-story keep is 15 meters long and 13 meters wide. The walls are 2.50 meters thick at the bottom, they decrease by 20 cm from floor to floor. The high castle ( Palas ) occupies the entire east side of the complex with a length of 33 meters and a width of 12 meters. This is flanked by two seven-story towers.
residence
The castle was one of the residences that represented the respective archbishops with their entire court in their capacity as sovereigns. The temporary stays of Archbishops Walram von Jülich and Wilhelm von Gennep and their successors in Lechenich are documented in numerous documents. The Residenzsaal was ideally suited for receiving homage, granting mortgages and appointments, issuing arbitral awards and receiving diplomats. Between 1351 and 1381, the jury of the Maas-Rhein peace alliance often held meetings here.
Guests of the Landesburg
The traditional history of the 15th and 16th centuries tells of several social events in castle life. During this time, the electors also hosted important guests at their Lechenich castle:
- King Sigismund with his entourage in 1414 on his ride to the coronation in Aachen and on the return to Bonn .
- King Friedrich III. with his entourage on June 13, 1442 on his coronation trip from Bonn to Aachen.
- Emperor Karl also made a stop in Lechenich in 1543 on the occasion of his train to Düren .
The outer bailey
The farm buildings belonging to the castle were located in the outer bailey. The castle courtyard of the state castle was a table good for the archbishop. The income generated on the associated lands was partly used to supply the archbishop's kitchen. The castle lands had been leased since the 16th century. The profits from cattle breeding through the sale of beef ox and sheep's wool were used for the castle budget. A relatively small permanent castle crew of 16 people lived in the castle. In addition to the bailiff , there were the waiter , the waiter and the burgrave, a porter, several guards and servants . Furthermore, the bailiff entertained 6-8 branches .
- Castle views
Administrative headquarters and court seat
The castle as the administrative castle of the sovereign formed the administrative center of the Lechenich office. The administration was the responsibility of the bailiff, who lived in the outer bailey until the middle of the 16th century. His task was to protect the rights of the sovereign such as the protection of the castle, town and office of Lechenich, the protection of the sovereign streets and the administration of justice to protect the residents and to maintain sovereign sovereignty. The waiter, another official, was responsible for the accounts of incoming income and expenses, the structural maintenance of the castle and the farm buildings and the remuneration of the servants.
The Landesburg was the seat of the Lechenich Office. Four times a year, the bailiff held the lords' court as the representative of the sovereign, in which the residents were obliged to participate. They were shown their rights and duties recorded in the Weistum (peasant book) and complaints were clarified. In several days of interrogation , the bailiff and the mayor, mayor and lay judges imposed fines for violations of the law or orders of the elector. The mayor and lay judges, who had had their own court seal since 1325, exercised judicial rights in the large hall of the official or winery house, such as issuing notarial documents, passing judgments in complaints and punishing wrongdoers, and imprisonment for major offenses. They also had high court rights . They imposed the death penalty for serious offenses and at the witch trials from 1626 to 1632. The executioner, who traveled from Cologne, carried out the sentences at the place of execution outside the city near the former Roman road . The way there is still referred to on the Tranchot map as the Galgendricht .
Development in modern times
After the archbishops and electors had their permanent residence in Bonn, they rarely stayed in Lechenich. There is evidence of stays for hunting in the Ville or overnight stays several times a year in the rooms of the winery on the trip to and from the Diocese of Liège , of which they were also Prince-Bishops. After 1657 no more overnight stays are recorded.
During the siege of Lechenich from April 17th to May 26th 1642 by mercenary troops under the command of General Guébriants , the disputed castle was not taken, but the city suffered great damage.
During the wars of Louis XIV of France, whose policy was supported by the Cologne Elector Max Heinrich and his coadjutor Wilhelm von Fürstenberg , the city and castle were taken without a fight by imperial troops under Montecucolli in 1673 and occupied until 1679. The French troops quartered in the castle as they were before 1673 set it on fire on April 21, 1689 when they withdrew from the approaching Brandenburgers who were allied with the emperor. The facility had thus lost its strategic importance and had become of no interest for Kurkölner politics. After the fire, the castle was uninhabitable. The burned-down roof structure of the main castle and the keep were poorly repaired. The rooms, including the former large residence hall, were used as a grain store.
In the 18th century the castle deteriorated more and more. Only the prison tower, the Demerite house and the castle chapel in the southern wing were preserved.
The head waiter ( rent master ) lived in the former administrative building in the outer bailey, known as the Kellnereihaus . After the city fire of 1702, the winery was repaired, after the great city fire of 1722 the rebuilding of the outer bailey with a winery house, barn and stables was necessary.
Castle owner after secularization
In the course of secularization , the expropriation of ecclesiastical property under Napoleon , all palace buildings and the associated area were confiscated as electoral property and auctioned off in 1805. They were acquired by Andreas Borlatti, son of the last head waiter, Josef Borlatti. Some buildings, including the remains of the south wing with the palace chapel, were completely demolished. Some of them are known from paintings by A. Reuter (1795 and 1797).
After Borlatti's death in 1859, the palace complex was in changing private ownership. In 1869 Heinrich Fischenich and his wife Josefine Menzen became owners of the castle and its extensive agricultural land, making the couple the most wealthy landowners in Lechenich. In the following years the castle fell into an idyllic slumber . The Euskirchener Zeitung wrote in 1880 that a pleasure tour should not be missed, " ... the romantic ruins and the adjoining secluded park, the favorite spot of sweet-flaming nightingales ... ". In 1894 Heinrich Fischenich sold the castle to Baron Georg von Bleichröder , the son of the Berlin banker Gerson von Bleichröder . In addition, in the same year Bleichröder acquired a farm and land on Römerstrasse Trier – Cologne , today Agrippa-Strasse Cologne – Trier, and founded a stud there , the “v. Bleichroedersche Gestüts Direction Römerhof near Lechenich “Baron von Bleichröder died in 1902 from injuries sustained in an accident with his automobile. From 1932 to 1967 Lechenich Castle was owned by Hans Reinhard Schmidt-Elmendorff , professor for obstetrics and gynecology at the Medical Academy of the University of Düsseldorf, and his wife, Gerda, née. Baroness von Schorlemer. After their death, the sons, Harald and Horst Schmidt-Elmendorff inherited.
Since 2003 the owners Heinrich Ico Prinz Reuss and Corinna Princess Reuss, the heiress of the von Elmendorff / Schmidt Elmendorff family.
Today's plant
From the buildings of the outer bailey, the former office building was converted into the castle owner's private residence. The adjoining buildings were partly rented. Residential houses and garages were built on the sold site of the former palace gardening company. With the financial support of the landscape association, several restorations were carried out in the 20th century, which secured the existence of the castle ruins. Considered possible uses such as B. Concert events have not yet been realized.
Even as a ruin, the Landesburg gives an impression of its former importance as a strongly fortified administrative castle of the sovereign and illustrates the difference to the numerous aristocratic residences of the Rhein-Erft district .
literature
- Robert Janke, Harald Herzog: Castles and palaces in the Rhineland . Greven Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7743-0368-1 , p. 66 .
- Jens Kirchhoff: Lechenich Castle in the context of late medieval residence development in the Archbishopric of Cologne . In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine . Rheinland-Verlag, 2001, ISSN 0341-289X .
- Paul Clemen : The art monuments of the Rhine province. District of Euskirchen . Düsseldorf 1900.
- Henriette Meynen: moated castles, palaces and country houses in the Erftkreis . 3. Edition. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7927-0904-X , pp. 118-121.
- Karl Stommel : History of the Electoral Cologne city of Lechenich . Euskirchen 1960.
- Karl and Hanna Stommel: Sources on the history of the city of Lechenich . 1-5 Tape. Erftstadt 1990–1998.
- Sigrun Heinen: Searching for traces in the Landesburg Lechenich - construction observations and inventory of the remains of Gothic wall paintings in the large ballroom. In: Yearbook of the city of Erftstadt. Erftstadt Cultural Office, 2013, pp. 70–75.
Individual evidence
- ↑ HSTAD inventory Altenberg U No. 1
- ↑ HAStK inventory Domstift U No. 3/46
- ^ R. Hoeninger: Cologne shrine documents of the 12th century. Bonn 1884. Vol. I p. 343, p. 349 and p. 354. HAStK Spiritual Department 16, published: in K. and H. Stommel: Sources for the history of the city of Erftstadt. Vol. I No. 157
- ↑ Konstantin Bendermacher: Lechenich, city and castle. In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine. 1870.
- ^ R. Knipping: Regest of the Archbishops of Cologne in the Middle Ages. Volume III.1. Bonn 1909. No. 948, No. 982, No. 984 and No. 2103.
- ^ Wilhelm Janssen: The Archdiocese of Cologne in the late Middle Ages. (History of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Vol. 2.1). Cologne 1996, pp. 203-207.
- ↑ HAStK cathedral monastery certificate 1/752
- ^ P. Clemen: Art monuments of the district of Euskirchen. P. 674.
- ↑ HSTAD Kurköln Certificate No. 251
- ↑ Kirchhoff: Lechenich Castle in the context of late medieval residence development in the Archbishopric of Cologne. P. 133.
- ^ Henriette Meynen: moated castles, palaces and country houses in the Erftkreis. P. 122.
- ↑ Kirchhoff, p. 148.
- ↑ Kirchhoff, Residenzburgen, p. 146.
- ↑ National Archives Paris UJ 440 No. 56 and No. 58
- ^ Claudia Rotthoff-Kraus: The political role of the peace agreements between Meuse and Rhine in the second half of the 14th century. Supplement to the journal of the Aachen History Association. Aachen 1990.
- ↑ Jörg Hoensch: Itinerar King and Emperor Sigismunds of Luxembourg 1368-1437. Warendorf 1995.
- ^ Wilhelm Brüning: The Aachen coronation trip of Friedrich III. in 1442. In: From Aachen's prehistory. Announcements from the association for customers of the Aachen prehistory . No. 6/8, pp. 81-104. Aachen 1898.
- ↑ Hans J. Domsta, Helmut Krebs, Anton Krobb: Timeline for the history of Düren 747-1997. S. 41. Düren 1998. ISSN 0343-2971
- ↑ HSTAD manuscripts LV 2 Bl. 32-33, Instructions to the waiter Lechenicher
- ↑ Kurköln fiefdom Generalia 9 II Bl. 157-158 (certificate of appointment)
- ↑ HSTAD Kurköln II 1917 p. 16
- ↑ Archive Schloss Gracht File No. 49, Lechenich Office, Brethren Protocols, pp. 37-42
- ↑ Central Archives of the Teutonic Order Vienna Dept. Document No. 1325 March 24
- ↑ Stommel: Sources on the history of the city of Erftstadt with documents from numerous archives.
- ↑ HSTAD Kurköln IV 3486, 3487, 3488, Kurköln III Vol. 23 and Vol. 24
- ↑ HSTAD Kurköln IV 3483-3489 (waiter invoices)
- ↑ HSTAD Kurköln IV 3490-3496 (waiter's bills)
- ^ Sarburg / Walram: Defense and triumph of the castle and the city of Lechenich against Hessian, French and Weimar troops in 1642. Cologne 1643.
- ↑ Stommel, sources no. 2666, evaluation of files from the Reich War Archives in Vienna by Stefan Sienell
- ^ Archive Schloss Gracht file no. 53 City of Lechenich mayor's accounts
- ↑ Electoral Cologne IV 2521 Bl.5-11
- ↑ HSTAD Kurköln IV 3547-3593, 5541-5050 (waiter invoices) and AEK Deanery Bergheim Lechenich No. 9 and No. 10
- ↑ Kurköln IV 1816 pp. 184-185
- ↑ Electoral Cologne IV 3499-3546
- ↑ HSTAD Roerdepartement 3169/3183
- ^ Frank Bartsch: Continuity and Change in the Country , page 134, Verlag Ralf Liebe, Weilerswist 2012
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Euskirchener Zeitung No. 64 of August 11, 1880
- ^ Frank Bartsch: Continuity and change in the country. The Rhine Prussian mayor of Lechenich in the 19th and early 20th centuries (1815–1914). Weilerswist 2012, p. 660.
- ↑ H. and C. Bormann: Heimat an der Erft. Erftstadt 1993, pp. 279-290.
- ^ Th. Wildemann: Rhenish moated castles and water-defended castles. Neuss 1954, p. 28.
