Burgsteinfurt Castle

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Burgsteinfurt Castle in the aerial view
Upper castle, lower castle and castle mill (front)

The Burgsteinfurt Castle (also Schloss Steinfurt called) is a moated castle at the edge of the old town of Burgsteinfurt, a district of Münsterland City Steinfurt . It is the oldest water castle in Westphalia and stands on an almost circular island around which the Steinfurter Aa flows . Nowadays, consisting of three building complexes, the upper castle , the lower castle and the castle mill , the facility has been repeatedly rebuilt and expanded in the course of its eventful history.

The castle is the ancestral seat of the dynasty of Bentheim-Steinfurt .

history

Burgsteinfurt Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

Rudolf II von Stenvorde, nobleman of Steinfurt, is considered to be the builder of the complex. His main Saxon courtyard is first mentioned in documents in 1129. At that time it consisted of a square residential tower with two meters thick walls and stood on a hill that had been thrown in a flat valley of the Aa. The river was dammed by a weir and led around the hill as a moat . A little later, the Lords of Steinfurt built a mighty fortress tower , the Buddenturm, on another artificial island . These two buildings formed the core of today's upper castle .

In 1164, the castle was destroyed in a feud with the lords of Ascheberg Castle . With the support of Archbishop Rainald von Dassel from Cologne, however, the owners had the castle rebuilt.

At the end of the 12th century, a castle chapel was added to the partially existing curtain wall . It consists of two sacred rooms lying one above the other on the ground floor and on the upper floor of the building. The upper floor served as a castle church, while the lower one was reserved for the cult of the dead.

View of the inside of the upper castle

In the middle of the 13th century, the residential tower was converted into a knight's hall , as evidenced by its early Gothic pointed arched windows and the Gothic stepped gable . At the same time, the two individual islands were combined into a single one and surrounded by a common defensive wall.

Gatehouse of the castle

The development of the outer bailey can also be dated to the 13th century . The so-called lower castle not only consisted of farm buildings such as barns, stables and storerooms, but also housed two Burgmannen houses, whose residents had to ensure the security of the entire castle complex.

When the male line of the von Steinfurt family died out in 1421, the castle and glory came to Everwin von Götterwick, who inherited the county of Bentheim in the same year . His family then called themselves "Counts of Bentheim and Steinfurt". However, since she lived on one of the numerous other properties, the castle in Steinfurt was no longer used as a residence and gradually fell into disrepair.

In April 1495, Steinfurt was given a fiefdom to the kingdom and made an imperial county to protect against the desires of the Münster prince- bishopric. The connected imperial immediacy angered the Prince-Bishop of Munster, in whose sphere of influence Steinfurt lay, and in the period that followed led to repeated disputes with him.

Only Countess Walburg von Brederode lived permanently on the site again and from 1558 had it repaired, expanded and converted into a castle together with her son Arnold . The sculptor Johann Brabender from Münster (Westphalia) created a bay window for the castle .

During the Thirty Years' War the castle changed hands several times and was badly damaged in the process. In 1634 the castle and town were occupied by the troops of the Prince-Bishop of Münster, Ferdinand I of Bavaria . They were followed by Hessian men in 1647 and then by imperial men. Although the first repair work was carried out as early as 1661, it was not fully rebuilt until 1706 and 1715. Further new buildings followed between 1723 and 1729 in the simple baroque style .

The mighty Buddenturm with its five meter thick walls had lost its military importance as a defensive tower due to the development of weapons technology towards the end of the 18th century , and so it was demolished between 1773 and 1779. Its stones were used to build almost all of the structures in the Steinfurter Bagnos . The curtain wall was also put down at this time.

From 1877 to 1898 the complex was restored by the Münster architect Franz Anton Nordhoff. Under his leadership, numerous old components were replaced by more modern elements. For example, the stone connecting bridge between the main island and the outer bailey island was made by him in 1888.

The Prince zu Bentheim Music Collection in Burgsteinfurt had been housed in the castle since the 18th century . The valuable collection has been on loan from the University and State Library of Münster since 1964 .

Todays use

The castle is still owned by the family of the princes of Bentheim and Steinfurt and is used as a residence. From 2009 the castle was only used privately. An interior inspection, as well as the inspection of the lower and upper courtyards, were no longer possible.

Since 2019 there has been a guided tour of the castle grounds on the first Friday of each month at 10:00 a.m. The tour takes about 1.5 hours and is possible for closed groups of 10 people or more.

Castle Park (Bagno)

From 1765 onwards, Imperial Count Karl Paul Ernst von Bentheim-Steinfurt arranged for a French garden to be laid out in the high forest southeast of the residential palace. In 1780 Count Ludwig von Bentheim-Steinfurt took over the government and introduced the modern ideas of the English gardens . In 1787, the first floor plan of the Bagnos, published in Paris by the French engraver Georges Louis Le Rouge , recorded 105 different buildings, water features, bridges, venues, statues, islands, gardens and paths spread over the relatively small area of ​​125 hectares .

The Bagno developed into the most important park in Westphalia because the sovereign had opened the park to everyone. The Bagnopark has been a member of the European Garden Heritage Network since 2006 .

concert hall

The exact time of the start of construction of the concert hall is not known, the completion was probably in the year 1774. Since the extensive renovation, which was completed in 1997, the historical concert hall under the name Bagno Konzertgalerie Steinfurt is used again for an abundance of concerts with some world-famous artists .

See also

literature

  • Rudolf Breuing: Burgsteinfurt Castle. In: District Steinfurt (Ed.): On the way in the district of Steinfurt. A guide. Steinfurt 1980.
  • Wolfgang Hauke: Steinfurt Castle . In: Old castles beautiful castles. A romantic trip to Germany. Das Beste, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-87070-278-8 , pp. 40-41.
  • Wolfgang Köckeritz: Steinfurt Castle (= large architectural monuments . Issue 335). 2nd Edition. German Art Publishing House, Munich / Berlin 1982,
  • Prince Oskar zu Bentheim-Steinfurt, The Steinfurter Schloß. In: Thomas Hoeren : Historical City Guide Steinfurt . Steinfurt 2005, ISBN 3-934427-81-2 , p. 30-45 .

Web links

Commons : Burgsteinfurt Castle  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Castle tours - Steinfurt Castle

Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 45 ″  N , 7 ° 20 ′ 29 ″  E