New Isenburg

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Zwingermauer and the gate of the New Isenburg behind it
The entrance area of ​​the New Isenburg with the reconstructed bridge

The New Isenburg is a ruined castle in Essen district Bredeney . It is named after the Hattinger Isenburg , which was destroyed in 1225.

The facility was built around 1240 by Count Dietrich von Altena-Isenberg on a 150 meter high mountain spur of the Brembergs above the Ruhr . The rocky castle area is bounded in the east and west by deep stream valleys and on the south side by a steep slope towards the Ruhr. The castle was easy to defend and also had a strategically favorable location near Kölnische Strasse and Hellweg .

But only 48 years after it was built, the castle was destroyed again and then fell into ruin. At the beginning of the 20th century there were hardly any unearthly traces of her to be seen. Only an excavation between 1927 and 1933 uncovered what is now visible.

The Neue Isenburg is the property of the city of Essen and is protected as a building and ground monument. The ruin is freely accessible and can be visited free of charge.

history

Dietrich's father, Friedrich von Isenberg , was executed in November 1226 for the killing of Cologne's Archbishop Engelbert von Berg . His castles, including the Isenburg in Hattingen, were destroyed, the Isenberg property confiscated and divided between the Archdiocese of Cologne and the Count of the Mark . This not only changed property and feudal rights , but also brought the lucrative bailiwicks over the wealthy imperial abbeys of Werden and Essen from the Isenbergers to Kurköln .

Dietrich, however, as the eldest son of Friedrich, demanded the entire property, including the lost rights, from around 1230. The so-called Isenberg feud broke out between him and his uncle Heinrich IV of Limburg on the one hand and Count Adolf I von der Mark together with the Archbishop of Cologne Konrad von Hochstaden on the other.

In order to enforce his inheritance claim to the protectorate of the Abbeys Essen and Werden, he had the "new" Isenburg built around 1240 on the land of Werdens. Excavation finds, such as ceramic shards, have shown, however, that the rock spur was settled in earlier times.

In 1243 the feud came to an end, and Dietrich received part of his father's property back. Since the archbishop did not want to give up the lucrative bailiwicks again, he had the "castrum Hisinbergh" besieged in 1244 and was also able to conquer it. Konrad von Hochstaden then appointed Heinrich von Sayn as bailiff, who represented Cologne's interests from the Isenburg. The complex was used as a bastion in the fight against the Brandenburg counts, and as a prison. Prominent prisoners were, for example, the Paderborn Bishop Simon I von Lippe and Count Adolf I von Waldeck .

On February 22, 1248, Dietrich von Isenberg renounced the rights to the castle and the bailiwicks over Essen and Werden in favor of Cologne and withdrew to his Limburg near Hagen . In the period that followed, the Neue Isenburg served as the administrative seat and military base of the Cologne Archbishopric .

After Siegfried von Westerburg's defeat in the Battle of Worringen , one of the victors, Count Eberhard I von der Mark , used Kurköln's weakness to conquer several Cologne possessions; including the New Isenburg he 1288 grind left. It was not rebuilt afterwards.

The complex fell into ruin more and more. Around 1900 only a few remains of the wall of her could be seen, most of it was buried under the ground and rubble. An excursion restaurant was set up in the area of ​​the main castle.

Under the direction of Ernst Kahrs, the head of the Ruhrland Museum at the time, the building fabric that is visible today was exposed and partially walled up between 1927 and 1933. From 1975 to 1979, on the initiative of the then director of the Essen Stadtwald-Gymnasium, Leo Fonrobert, minor security work and excavations followed, partly as a project of the gymnasium, the findings of which are now on display in the Ruhr Museum.

description

Schematic floor plan of the ruin

With a size of around 135 by 45 meters, the Neue Isenburg was one of the largest castles in the region. It was built entirely from Ruhr sandstone , which was extracted directly from the castle rock. Their buildings were almost completely surrounded by a moat in which there were two wells on the north side.

The complex is divided into an outer bailey and a core bailey, which are separated from each other by a four to five meter deep and ten meter wide ditch. A modern wooden bridge replaces the former drawbridge , which used to be the only way to access the main castle. A total of 15 stairs carved into the rock connected the buildings and terrace-like castle sections. However, only three of them have survived.

Outer bailey

Gate construction of the outer bailey

The outer bailey area measures around 45 by 75 meters and is surrounded by a circular wall around 180 meters long and up to two meters thick . Its gateway is in the northeast corner and is only partially preserved. In the north-west corner, the remains of an eight-meter-wide tower with a horseshoe-shaped floor plan are still 4.5 meters high. It was one of a total of eight towers to protect the facility.

The half-timbered house in this area was not built until the 20th century.

Core castle

Gate of the main castle; in the foreground the reconstructed fountain

The main castle has an oval ground plan with dimensions of approximately 45 by 37 meters. Your curtain wall is up to two meters thick. In the direction of the outer bailey, there is a kennel as additional protection for the entrance.

Along the inside of the curtain wall, several buildings are grouped around an inner courtyard, most of which only the foundations have survived. In the southwest corner are the remains of the square main tower with a side length of 8.75 meters. The 1.8 meter thick walls should once have been at least 20 meters high.

To the east of the keep was formerly a narrow building, the cellar of which is still preserved. The building served as a connection to the former three storeys comprehensive Palas . A staircase led to his entrance, which was a little above the level of the courtyard. The ground floor was occupied by two rooms, the larger of which had three remaining window niches. Its ceiling was supported by a central column, as evidenced by the stone remains of this support.

Adjacent to the Palas are the stumps of a narrow outbuilding in the east, the purpose of which has not yet been clarified; Both use as a farm building and as a residential building are conceivable. A staircase leads to his basement.

The third well of the castle complex is located on the northern side of the courtyard and has now been reconstructed.

literature

  • Josef Bieker: Castles in the area. Romance between winding towers . 2nd Edition. Harenberg, Dortmund 1989, ISBN 3-88379-586-0 , pp. 106-107.
  • Klaus Gorzny: Ruhr castles . Piccolo-Verlag, Marl 2002, ISBN 3-9801776-7-X , pp. 140-141.
  • Bianca Khil: Isenburg. In: Detlef Hopp , Bianca Khil, Elke Schneider (eds.): Burgenland Essen. Castles, palaces and permanent houses in Essen . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2017, ISBN 978-3-8375-1739-2 , pp. 66–69.
  • Stefan Leenen: The Isenburg . In: Kai Niederhöfer (Red.): Burgen AufRuhr. On the way to 100 castles, palaces and mansions in the Ruhr region . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8375-0234-3 , pp. 188–191.
  • Stefan Leenen: Neu-Isenburg ruins in Essen (= Rheinische Kunststätten . Issue 536). Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-86526-079-6 .

Web links

Commons : Neue Isenburg  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Information according to the information board on the property
  2. ^ S. Leenen: Die Isenburg , p. 188.
  3. ↑ Brief history of the castle , accessed on September 2, 2013.

Coordinates: 51 ° 24 ′ 37 ″  N , 7 ° 1 ′ 52 ″  E