Borbeck Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Borbeck Castle with farm buildings
Borbeck Castle with the wrought iron gate to the park

The Borbeck Castle is a baroque moated castle in Essen district Borbeck . From the 14th century it was the preferred residence of the Essen prince abbesses and got its present appearance in the 18th century. It has been used as a venue for further education and cultural events since the 1980s.

description

The castle complex in Borbeck consists of a main house and an elongated farm building, which is located northeast of the main building. The two castle buildings are surrounded by a 42  hectare large castle park in the English landscape style .

building

The three-storey main building is surrounded by a six to nine-meter-wide moat that runs north into a castle pond . It owes its present-day, sober-looking appearance to renovation and expansion work in the first half of the 18th century. The northern part of the lightly plastered rectangular building with its two square corner towers and the curved gable dates from the Renaissance period , but was later changed to Baroque forms. The quarry stone masonry of its core structure rises on a 16 × 18 meter floor plan and was built in the middle of the 17th century. It is adjoined to the south by an extension comprising five window axes, construction of which probably began in 1744. The gable roof of the building has a number of dormers on both roof slopes . At the southern end of its ridge there is a roof turret with a small bell. Four-story corner towers rise at both corners of the north facade, which are closed off by a curved hood with an octagonal lantern . Both the towers and the building are emphasized by corner blocks, which are now hidden under the plaster. A 13 meter long stone bridge leads to the main portal . It dates back to the 19th century and replaced a wooden bridge, the two-sided central pillars made of stone made of stone were reused. Above the castle entrance is the coat of arms of Franziska Christine von Pfalz-Sulzbach , held by two lions , below the inscription:

"GOD'S GRACE FRANZISCA CHRISTINA pfaltz COUNTESS Bey RHEIN VND DHRR PRINCESS VND ABBESS THE KAŸSERLICHEN Frey SECULAR STIFTER FOOD VND THORN IN BAVARIA ZV GVLICH CLEVELAND VND MOUNTAIN DUCHESS PRINCESS ZV MOERS COUNTESS ZV Veldenz SPONHEIM THE MARCK VND RAVENSBERG FRAV ZV RAVESTEIN Breysig RELLINGHAVSEN HVCKARDE ANNO 1744 "

To the northwest of the mansion there is a classical plastered building with a castle-like character. Erected in 1842 on the site of an old outer bailey, it was always used for economic purposes despite its stately appearance. Its central building has three storeys, which are closed by a hipped roof. The center of its nine axes is particularly emphasized by a final triangular gable . This shows stone heads from the Renaissance period from Horst Castle . To the north and south of the central building, lower side wings with two stories adjoin.

The northwest corner of the north wing is marked by a quarry stone tower with a basic diameter of 5.90 × 5.90 meters. It is a relic of the former medieval outer bailey from the 14th / 15th centuries. Century and is one of the oldest building certificates in Borbeck. It can be assumed that in earlier times it had more than the three storeys preserved today. Originally he had at the bottom of well on all four sides loopholes . While its basement was used as a prison in the past, there was a guardroom with windows on the upper floor. One of them had a Gothic pointed arch shape , which is now covered by the wooden cladding on the outside.

  • Borbeck Castle with moat, view from the east

  • The coat of arms of Franziska Christine von Pfalz-Sulzbach above the castle entrance

  • View from the castle park to the main building

  • Former farm building that now serves as a place for exhibitions

Castle Park

Upper part of the wrought iron gate at the entrance to the castle park

Borbeck's castle park is one of the oldest parks in the Rhineland , because the abbess Elisabeth von Manderscheid-Blankenheim had the beech forest, also known as Fürstinnenbusch , belonging to the castle converted into a forest park in the 16th century. Access to it is provided by a wrought-iron gate from the end of the 17th century , which originally came from Hugenpoet Castle . After it had only stood at the main entrance to the palace complex from 1846, it was given its current location at the park entrance in the 1940s. The city coat of arms of Essen was adopted in the upper part of the gate.

The castle park is designed as an English landscape garden and dates from the time when Maria Kunigunde of Saxony was the abbess of the Essen monastery. In their time he still owned water features, aviaries , a fake tomb, an artificial ruin and a small island in a swan pond. The source of the Borbecke can still be reached today via winding paths , which feeds Grafts and Schlossteich via a narrow stream .

From 2016 a concept for the design of the castle park as a historical garden monument was implemented. In contrast, there were urban plans in 2019, which provided for massive residential developments on the southern edge of the palace park. Only after resistance from an environmental initiative were these plans abandoned.

In the eastern area of ​​the park, which is accessible free of charge, is the former boxing facility Dubois-Arena , an open-air arena in the style of an amphitheater , which is now used for events.

In 1954, the Borbeck gymnastics community organized the Schlossparklauf for the first time, a sporting event for all ages of all ages. It has been held annually since then.

history

Beginnings

The Borbeck castle goes back to a Franconian upper courtyard of the women's monastery in Essen called Bort (h) beki , which was first mentioned in 869 in a lifting roll of the monastery . It was also mentioned in a document in 1227 through a dispute between the then owner, Knight Hermann von Borbecke, and the abbess Adelheid von Wildenberg, who, with the support of the Imperial Bailiff, Adolf von Gymnich , was finally able to prevail in this dispute.

In the course of the 13th century the monastery gradually built up territorial rule, so that a spatial separation of the abbess's residence from the buildings with spiritual use was sought in order to express the secular claim to rule. For this reason, Abbess Berta von Arnsberg bought the apparently pledged Oberhof Borbeck from the knights Hermann and Wennemar von Altendorf in order to have the predecessor of today's castle built there. It is still not clear whether this moth was built on the foundations of the old courtyard or whether it was only built on its land.

Borbeck becomes residence

Borbeck Castle in 1756, copper engraving after a drawing by Franz Philipp Biesten

From the beginning of the 14th century, Borbeck became the preferred residence of the princely abbesses. It was first referred to as castrum in 1372 , which suggests that it was already a permanent house or castle at that time . In the year mentioned, Abbess Elisabeth von Nassau had relocated the free court to Borbeck with the consent of Emperor Charles IV .

In the years that followed, the castle complex served as a place of refuge for the canons of Essen; for example in 1426, when there was an internal dispute about the successor to Margarete von der Mark-Arensberg . The abbess had resigned, and with the support of the male canons , Margaret of Limburg was appointed abbess. However, this happened against the votes of the remaining ten canonesses, who were basically the only ones who had the right to elect a new abbess. Her favorite Elisabeth Stecke-von Beeck fled with her followers to the castle complex in Borbeck, where she was besieged by men from Limburg. With the support of Elisabeth's family, however, the Limburgers could be chased away. A two-year feud followed before the papal legacy was able to mediate between the disputing parties and Elisabeth von Beeck was confirmed as abbess by the pope.

There is evidence of a coin on the castle from the 15th century. Abbess Sophia von Gleichen began to mint her own coins, the so-called “Borbeck Gulden ” and the “Borbeck Groschen ”. In 1493 the complex's gatehouse and stables burned down in an attack.

During the Eighty Years War , Borbeck was largely destroyed by Spanish troops in 1590. However, the buildings were restored by Princess Abbess Elisabeth von Manderscheid-Blankenheim until 1594 and even converted into a summer residence.

Heyday and secularization

In 1665, Abbess Anna Salome von Salm-Reifferscheidt moved her entire residence from Essen to Borbeck after she had rebuilt the main building in the Renaissance style on old foundations around 1650 . At the same time she realized the first artistically designed garden west of the manor house with terraced rock gardens, walking paths as well as walnut and fruit plantations.

Borbeck Castle owes its current appearance to renovation work by Abbess Franziska Christine von Pfalz-Sulzbach in the years from 1744 to 1762. She had the building extended to the south. The large palace park was also laid out under her leadership. The baroque garden with water features had strictly symmetrical beds and cascades that flow axially towards the castle .

Maria Kunigunde of Saxony laid the foundation stone for today's palace gardens; Portrait by Heinrich Foelix, 1772

The last princess abbess of Essen, Maria Kunigunde von Sachsen, planned the complete rebuilding of her residence, but this plan was never carried out because the territory of the monastery was taken over by Prussia in 1802 . It also meant the end of this sovereign enclave on Prussian territory. After secularization in 1803, the Prussian State and Domain Chamber sold Borbeck Castle in 1804 to the Counts of Recke-Volmarstein .

Baron Clemens von Fürstenberg acquired the facility in 1826 . He had their old outer bailey, consisting of servants 'houses and farm buildings, torn down, and between 1839 and 1842 the Essen architect Heinrich Theodor Freyse built a new, classicist building with a royal stables in place of the old servants' and farm buildings, with a medieval square tower in the new building was integrated. Until it was rebuilt by the Barons von Fürstenberg , it served, among other things, as a watchtower and prison. It was then used as a beer cellar and archive. Clemens' son, Friedrich Leopold von Fürstenberg, had the moat system in the former outer bailey leveled in 1865 so that no traces of it are visible today.

When the von Fürstenberg family moved their entire residence to Hugenpoet in 1879, whose castle had also been in the family's possession since 1831, the premises of Borbeck Castle were no longer used.

20th century

In 1920 the castle park was made accessible for a fee. During the Second World War , a few small bunkers were built in today's castle park area, which are still visible in the bushes today. Their entrances are, however, concreted over. The castle buildings survived the war years unscathed.

The city of Essen acquired the facility from the Fürstenbergs in 1941 in order to use it as office space for the city administration after conversion and restoration in the 1950s and 1960s. With the exception of the vaulted cellar and some decorative interior elements that came from Horst Castle, the historic building fabric of the interior was lost during these construction work.

When the municipal offices moved to a new administration building in the 1970s, the upper floor of the palace and its outbuilding were unused for a long time. The planning concept "a castle for citizens" presented by the city of Essen in 1979 included the provision of group and social rooms, which should be available in the morning for the youth music school and in the evening for the local clubs, in addition to the catering. In addition, small guest apartments were set up for artists. Between 1982 and 1984, for example, the Essen lyricist Wilfried S. Bienek lived in one, and in 1993 the musician Markus Emanuel Zaja moved into the Schloss Quartier as a scholarship holder from the city of Essen. In addition, a day care center for the elderly, exhibition rooms and workshops for artists as well as laboratory spaces and projection rooms for film and photo amateurs were planned. The planning relied on the creation of a local cultural working group that would take care of the care itself. In the early 1980s, an initiative to use the castle building as a community center was founded. However, despite three years of preparatory work, the concept was not implemented, and the city of Essen itself remained the operator of the plant.

After the buildings had been under monument protection since February 1985, the entire castle grounds were also designated as a ground monument in December 1998 , as remains of the previous buildings are suspected to be underground.

Todays use

Borbeck Castle has served as a cultural and meeting place for the citizens of Essen since 1983. In addition to the Borbeck registry office, which has a wedding room in the castle, and the Folkwang music school , it also houses part of the municipal adult education center . The former farm building is used regularly for exhibitions and craft VHS courses. Concerts and lectures are also held in the castle.

In the basement there is a restaurant, which, based on the old tradition of coinage at Borbeck Castle, is called “Zur Münze” and regularly organizes gastronomic events in the great hall of the castle.

Since the end of extensive renovation work between 2004 and 2006, the permanent exhibition Borbeck Castle and the Princely Abbessesses can be seen in the moated castle . It offers an insight into the almost 1000-year history of the Essen women's foundation. An oil painting by Heinrich Foelix from 1772, showing the last abbess Maria Kunigunde, was bought at Sotheby’s and now hangs in the tower room of the castle. Furniture, crockery, tapestries and a chess set from the 17th and 18th centuries are also housed there.

literature

  • Paul Clemen (Ed.): The art monuments of the city and the district of Essen (= The art monuments of the Rhine Province . Volume 2, Section 3). L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1893, pp. 62-63 ( digitized version ).
  • Ludger Fischer : The most beautiful palaces and castles on the Lower Rhine. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2004, ISBN 3-8313-1326-1 , pp. 14-15.
  • Klaus Gorzny: Emscherschlösser. Castles, palaces and aristocratic residences in the Emscher Landscape Park. Piccolo, Marl 2001, ISBN 3-9801776-5-3 , pp. 38-42.
  • Detlef Hopp : Borbeck Castle . In: Kai Niederhöfer: 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. 171-174.
  • Detlef Hopp: Borbeck Castle. 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. 34–37.
  • Birthe Marfording (Ed.): Borbeck Castle and its Park. Oberhof - moated castle - pleasure palace - residence and civic center over the centuries. Essen 1999.
  • Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 34-35 .

Web links

Commons : Schloss Borbeck  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b website of the castle , accessed on January 5, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b List of soil monuments of the city of Essen ( PDF ; 681 kB)
  3. ^ Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein. 2001, p. 35.
  4. ↑ Paul Clemen: The art monuments of the city and the district of Essen. 1893, p. 63.
  5. ^ Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments . North Rhine-Westphalia . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1967, p. 181.
  6. ↑ a b c Information according to an information board in the permanent exhibition in the castle
  7. ↑ www.lokalkompass.de/Essen-Borbeck/Eindrücke vom neue Schlosspark. Edition December 7, 2016. Accessed July 25, 2020.
  8. ↑ www.lokalkompass.de/Essen-Borbeck/Bürgerinitiative hands over 4,500 signatures in the Essen town hall. Edition November 10, 2019. Accessed July 25, 2020.
  9. ↑ Rüdiger Hagenbucher: For the 65th time runners are doing their laps in the castle park. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . Edition of September 2, 2018 ( online ).
  10. ^ Gregor Spohr (ed.): Romantic Ruhr area. Castles, palaces, mansions. 2nd Edition. Pomp , Bottrop 1996, ISBN 3-89355-110-7 , p. 52.
  11. ^ A b Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein. 2001, p. 34.
  12. ↑ a b c Ludger Fischer: The most beautiful palaces and castles on the Lower Rhine. 2004, p. 15.
  13. ↑ Klaus Gorzny: Emscherschlösser. 2001, p. 38.
  14. ↑ Detlef Hopp: Borbeck Castle. 2017, p. 172.
  15. ^ Josef Bieker: Castles in the Revier. Romance between winding towers. 2nd Edition. Harenberg, Dortmund 1993, ISBN 3-88379-586-0 , p. 86.
  16. ↑ Detlef Hopp: Borbeck Castle. 2017, p. 174.
  17. ^ Volkshochschule planned a special "culture model" for Borbeck - a castle for citizens. In: Neue Ruhr Zeitung . Issued October 4, 1979.
  18. ↑ Entry of the castle in the architectural monuments list of the city of Essen ( PDF ; 702 kB)

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 6 ″  N , 6 ° 56 ′ 32 ″  E