Beaufort Castle (Luxembourg)
| Beaufort Castle | ||
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 The ruins of Beaufort Castle from the southeast |
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| Creation time : | 1192 | |
| Castle type : | Rock castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Place: | Befort | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 50 '1 " N , 6 ° 17' 11.9" E | |
| Height: | 335 m above sea level NHN | |
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The ruins of Beaufort Castle are in the municipality of Befort in Luxembourg . It stands about 5 km west of the town center and about 35 meters lower in a valley floor. The castle originally stood on a rock cone about 23 m above the valley floor, but has been extensively expanded downwards over time.
history
The story of how Beaufort came into being is a bit confused. Wauthier de Wiltz et Beaufort is mentioned for the first time as lord of Beaufort in 1192. That is why the construction of the inner castle is dated to the late 12th century. The construction of the castle can be roughly divided into two sections. The differences are especially visible in the inner courtyard of the castle, where clear traces of a Romanesque and a Gothic construction phase are visible.
When the lords of Beaufort died out in the male line in the 14th century, the facility came to her husband Wilhelm von Orley via Adelheid von Beaufort in 1348. His descendant Johann was accused of breach of loyalty to his sovereign, so that Emperor Maximilian I confiscated the castle and rule of Beaufort and gave them to someone else as a fief .
By marriage in the 16th century, the property finally came to Bernard von Velbrück, through whose granddaughter it fell to Gaspard de Heu. In the struggle of the Dutch for their independence from Spain, de Heu supported Moritz of Orange and was captured by the Spanish. Accused of breach of loyalty and heresy and found guilty, he was publicly executed in 1593. King Philip II of Spain moved in Beaufort Castle and enfeoffed Count Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld .
At the end of the 1630s, the Beaufort reign was so over-indebted due to the Thirty Years' War that it had to be sold. On November 27, 1639, the governor of the province of Luxembourg, Johann von Beck (French: Jean de Beck ) acquired them with all their "hauteurs, juridictions, noms droits et actions, biens censes et revenus et Grallem et toutes ses appartenances et dépendances". He eventually built a castle in the style of Renaissance 15 meters above the present ruin in order to use it as his new residence. The lord of the castle did not live to see the completion of the new building, as it was only after Johann's death by his son Georg.
Since the castle was no longer used for residential purposes, it fell into disrepair over the centuries. It wasn't until 1928 that the owner Edmond Linckels started to get better times for the facility, which had meanwhile become a ruin. Linckels had the rubble removed from the castle and made it accessible to visitors for the first time.
Todays use
Beaufort Castle and Castle have been owned by the State of Luxembourg since 1981. The renaissance castle and the castle ruins can be visited today. Interesting details such as the guardroom have been restored to their old condition.
literature
- Beaufort Castle. Luxembourg. Joseph Belfort, Luxembourg.
- Matthias Kordel: The most beautiful palaces and fortresses in the Eifel . 1st edition. Wartberg Verlag GmbH, Gudensberg-Gleichen 1999, ISBN 3-86134-482-3 , pp. 8-10.
- Michael Margue: nobility, castle and monastery . In: Special print from: Beaufort through the ages. Vol. 1. Belfort municipality, Luxembourg 1994, pp. 3-16.
- John Zimmer et al .: The castles of the Luxembourg country . Volume 1. Luxembourg 1996, ISBN 2-919883-06-2 .
- John Zimmer: On the building history of Beaufort Castle. In: Special print from: Beaufort through the ages. Vol. 1. Beaufort municipality, Luxembourg 1994, pp. 17–44.
Web links
- Information about the castle on the website of the city of Beaufort
- Beaufort Castle on burgenwelt.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Whether it is a branch of the Beaufort-Spontin family (headquartered at Beaufort Castle near Ben-Ahin, today a district of Huy (Belgium) ) or another family with the same name needs to be clarified.
- ↑ Quoted from M. Kordel: The most beautiful palaces and castles in the Eifel , p. 9.