Arensburg Castle

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Castle courtyard and staircase

Arensburg Castle is a castle in the Steinbergen district of the city of Rinteln in Lower Saxony .

description

The medieval building consists of a three-story palace with a two-story half-timbered structure and a polygonal stair tower . The various outbuildings include a half-timbered building , also known as the “ Zehntscheune ”, which is located north of the main building. This is the oldest part today. The 14 hectare park is under nature protection.

history

Arensburg Castle around 1841

The Arensburg was probably built around 1300 by Count Adolf VI from Schaumburg . was built on a steep hilltop with a rocky bedrock. It was first mentioned in a document in 1385. It is assumed that there was a predecessor as a watch tower or control post around 1100 . Excavations carried out during the construction in 1951 and 1964 could not confirm this assumption . The investigations indicated the beginning as a small tower castle with a pointed moat. The tower had a wall thickness of one meter. The 3 meter wide trench was driven up to 2.5 meters into the rocky subsoil. In the 14th century, a ring wall measuring 27 × 28 meters was built around the tower . Buildings were attached to it inside, such as a tower-like stone structure, another structure and a half-timbered structure.

The name suggests that the Arensburg was the seat of the Lords of Arnhem . The castle secured the military and trade route over the Steinberger Pass in a strategically favorable position . It leads through the up to 320 meters high Weser Mountains that separated the Bukkigau and Tilithigau from each other.

The conversion from the castle to the palace took place around 1560 and included the addition of tracts, stables and a medieval inner courtyard. Towards the end of the 16th century , after the abandonment and loss of his diocese in 1582 , Hermann , Bishop of Minden, moved back to Schaumburg to his brother Adolf and lived in the Arensburg as a mansion until his death in 1592. During this time, the main building with the palas and the The stair tower and the oldest part today, the half-timbered structure with a hipped roof . In 1646 the Arensburg fell to Schaumburg-Lippe .

One of the nine so-called witch ponds

Below the castle hill there are nine ponds, which are known as witch ponds . The naming can be traced back to the fact that they were used at the time of the witch hunts in the county of Schaumburg in the 16th and 17th centuries for water samples in order to convict suspects of witchcraft . According to the Obernkirchen church book, 20 people were burned as witches on November 11, 1659 near the castle. It was about boys and girls who are said to have performed witches' dances at the Luhden cliffs.

Until 1816 the Arensburg sank into a kind of deep sleep. The main building was used at times as a warehouse for grain and other goods before Prince Georg Wilhelm zu Schaumburg-Lippe married Ida von Waldeck-Pyrmont and had Arensburg Castle converted into a holiday home. The advantages of the proximity to Bückeburg and the health resort Eilsen as well as the delightful natural surroundings fit in well with the concept of a romantic- style holiday home at the time . The tower was raised, the roof restored, and modern ceiling paintings in neo -Gothic style .

20th century

Arensburg tithe barn

For a long time there was a stables next to the castle . More modern buildings were built on its foundation walls. With the construction of the Reichsautobahn , which later became Bundesautobahn 2 in this area , Arensburg belonged to the Reichsautobahnverwaltung from 1940. This planned to expand and use the Arensburg as a motorway service station with its own motorway exit, which was not done during the war .

From 1943 to April 1945, the Arensburg was known as the “ Lahde Labor Education Camp” and was an external unit of the small concentration camp in Lahde on the Weser. Its international prisoners were housed in the tithe barn as mass quarters and had to do the heaviest forced labor in the nearby quarry , where the Steinzeichen amusement park was later set up.

It was not until the early 1950s that plans for a motorway service station were taken up again. In 1951, the Arensburg was put into operation as a rest stop. Conversions inside the building and a terrace for outdoor dining made the facility attractive for travelers. At the beginning of the 1980s, the service area was stopped because the castle no longer met the requirements of a service area. The owner at the time, the Gesellschaft für Nebenbetriebe der Bundesautobahnen mbH , estimated the need for renovation at around 14 million DM. As a result, the Federal Property Office sold the castle to an economic advisor in 1983.

In 1989 the castle came into the possession of another asset management company, which had the castle with its 85 rooms renovated for several million DM in the 1990s and converted into an office and administration building. It was modernized and equipped with an elevator, among other things.

Decay

After the bankruptcy of the asset management company in 2004, the Arensburg stood empty and increasingly neglected. In the course of the vacancy, there was considerable water damage in the castle building. As a result, there were other changes of ownership, including an inventor and a business woman. The purchase price for the system is said to have decreased from around 4 million euros to just under 200,000 euros. The renovation costs to make the castle habitable and usable were estimated at around two million euros in 2015. In December 2015, the Arensburg was auctioned by a company from Langenhagen that wanted to modernize the historic building and give it a new use. The company did not announce the intended type of subsequent use for the Arensburg. In 2020 it became insolvent, so the future of the palace complex is uncertain.

During an inspection of the castle, the preservation authorities discovered three well-preserved church windows that could have come from the Obernkirchen Abbey . You have been secured.

Visits to the public have so far been held at one viewing for the purpose of sale in 2012 and on the Open Monument Day in 2016.

  • Blue room in the castle

  • Stair tower in the courtyard

  • Access to the courtyard

  • Interior in the castle with exposed brickwork

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Arensburg Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pleasure palace, holiday residence and motorway service station: The narrative café on the subject of Arensburg Castle at RintelnAktuell.de from February 14, 2014
  2. ↑ Forsaken by all good spirits in: Schaumburger Zeitung of December 19, 2015
  3. ^ History of Arensburg Castle
  4. ↑ Wild parties and geocachers in: Schaumburger Nachrichten of March 4, 2015
  5. ^ Arensburg: New owner - no solution in: Schaumburger Nachrichten of August 18, 2016
  6. ↑ Life in the Castle in: Schaumburger Nachrichten of April 5, 2016
  7. ↑ The “perfect” concept in: Schaumburger Zeitung of July 4th, 2016
  8. ^ Future of Arensburg uncertain after bankruptcy in Schaumburger Nachrichten of August 26, 2020
  9. ^ A sober look into the once magnificent castle in: Schaumburger Nachrichten of June 10, 2012
  10. ↑ Between decay and ecstasy: Great interest in the “Open Monument Day” at rinteln aktuell on September 12, 2016

Coordinates: 52 ° 13 ′ 6.8 ″  N , 9 ° 7 ′ 5.4 ″  E