Hardenberg Castle (Velbert)

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The Hardenberg Castle is a Baroque former moated castle in the district Neviges the city Velbert . It is located in the valley of the Hardenberger Bach a little north of the Neviges town center at the narrowest point of the brook valley and goes back to a re-establishment of the von Gevertshagen family at the end of the 15th century. It replaced the dilapidated Hardenberg Castle , the remains of which can be found about 630 meters southwest of the castle .

Rebuilt to its present form at the end of the 17th century, it had to be temporarily cleared and closed to the public in 2003 for security reasons. Renovation work that began in 2005 is currently (as of 2016) still ongoing. The outer bailey buildings are used for cultural purposes.

Hardenberg Castle, general view (2008)

history

The castle was built by the von Gevertshagen family (also spelled Gevertshain and Gebhardtshain) as a defense structure with representative tasks at the same time. For a long time this late medieval castle house was equated with the "huis indwohnunghe zue Hardenberg" of the Lords of Hardenberg, mentioned in a document in December 1354, which Heinrich von Hardenberg and his independent rule sold to Gerhard I. Berg for 6000 marks in Brabant currency , so that Hardenberg henceforth was a Bergisches Amt. However, from 2005 building research showed that the core of today's palace construction dates from the end of the 15th century and the complex mentioned in 1354 can only have been referring to the ancestral seat of the Lords of Hardenberg, the south-western hilltop castle Hardenberg.

In the period that followed, the Hardenberg office was often pledged and therefore had many changing owners. Since 1491 Bertram von Gevertshagen , called Lützenrade (also Lutzenrode), was a bailiff and owned the castle and manor for 4000 Schillings as pledge. He was both councilor and stable master of the Bergisch Duke Wilhelm von Jülich-Berg and received the property from him on June 24, 1496 in exchange for the castle and rule of Stolberg as a hereditary fiefdom . Hardenberg thus became subordinate to the Duchy of Berg. Bertram von Gevertshagen had already built a two-part water castle there, for which he had spent the impressive sum of 800 guilders. It replaced the apparently dilapidated hilltop castle. The new complex consisted of a three-storey, Gothic castle building and a tower-reinforced artillery fortification that was built almost at the same time and that surrounded the castle house and a moat on all sides. This probably had a steep gable roof and transverse floor windows . A multi-storey lavatory and numerous chimneys show that this new building was not only defensive, but also comfortable. On the east side a round stair tower with a stone spiral staircase opened up the various floors, but was probably demolished in the course of later extensions. Also on the east facade was a square tower with one meter thick walls that were six and five meters long on the outside. Its substructure is still preserved today, but what function the tower fulfilled has not yet been clarified.

After the death of Bertram von Gevertshagen in 1525, which was quickly followed by that of his underage son, the castle was inherited by the von Bernsau family in 1529 . Up until that year, the main castle had been expanded into a two-wing complex and the resulting castle courtyard was enclosed with eaves-high, two-meter-thick walls. After the expansion, the floor plan measured 19 × 23 meters. The von Bernsau family had parts of the courtyard walls removed in the second third of the 16th century to make room for the construction of a third wing. With the 9 × 9 meter extension, it was expanded into an almost isosceles, baroque castle. The redesign cannot be precisely dated, but it probably happened under Wilhelm V von Bernsau (1514–1572). It was operated with relatively little effort, because the building owner obtained most of the building material from the demolition of the courtyard walls. From an inventory from 1634 it is known how the castle looked after the changes inside: a hall , eight chambers, a classroom and a chapel are guaranteed on the two upper floors of the main building . In the attic there were rooms for the servants, an armory and the grain store. The farmyard included a cow and horse stable, a cow house and a bakery and brewery . A drawbridge , guarded by a gate , connected the main building and the farm yard. Presumably it was Wilhelm V von Bernsau who had the previous artillery fortification converted into a small fortress . After that, Hardenberg Castle had an inner and an outer moat, so that the earth wall of the artillery fortification with its battlements was completely in the water.

Hardenberg Castle on a lithograph from around 1883

The heiress Isabella Margaretha von Bernsau married Baron Friedrich Arnold von Schaesberg in 1655 and temporarily transferred the property to her husband's family. In the period from 1682 to 1696, the woman, who had been widowed since 1667, had the castle completely redesigned again by expanding the previous castle building into a closed, plastered cube. For this purpose, parts of the east wing, which had possibly been damaged by fire in 1680, were laid down and the castle courtyard, which had existed until then, was completely built over. This became the vestibule . After Isabella Margaretha's death, her son Friedrich Sigismund Theodor von Schaesberg gave the house to his maternal uncle, Baron Jobst Dietrich von Wendt, in exchange for a pension on December 17, 1697 . His family remained the owners for almost 200 years. After a fire on May 13, 1785, she had to spend 11,000 thalers to rebuild the main house. The work, during which the building with the hipped roof was given its present shape, took the entire year.

The property finally became the property of the Wendt family after Hardenberg - belonging to the French-ruled Grand Duchy of Berg since 1806 - was added to Prussia after the Congress of Vienna in 1815 . But since 1811, the castle was only used sporadically, as Friedrich Wilhelm von Wendt had the permanent residence of the family of that year lock Crassenstein in Münsterland laid. However, Hardenberg occasionally served as a residence for individual members of the family until 1877. In 1818 French Marshal Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult, who lived in exile in Barmen , rented the castle and spent a summer there with his family. He had received the reference to the vacant house from his sister-in-law Diergardt. With the death of Oswald von Wendt in 1877, his sister Leonie inherited the property and took it to the family of her husband, the Dutch Count Wladimir von Marchant-Ansembourg. The curtain wall in the south had already been laid down in 1842 in order to receive building material for the reconstruction of the castle mill. Until 1848 a gradual demolition was followed by other parts of the enclosure, including the gatehouse to Vorburg including drawbridge. Instead, a fixed bridge has since provided access to the portal of the main castle. The outer and part of the inner moats were filled with the demolition material obtained . In 1849/1857 the first renovations of the round towers of the artillery fortifications followed .

From 1908 the main building was leased to a landlord who ran an inn with a beer garden and boat rental there until around 1945. The then town of Neviges acquired the castle grounds in 1939 from the Counts of Marchant-Ansembourg, so that the buildings have been in the municipal ownership of Velbert since the municipal reorganization, when Neviges became part of the town of Velbert. After the main palace had served since 1949 as a residence for displaced young people and from 1957 for apprentices, it was from 1965 to 1975 restored and then used as a museum and cultural center. In addition to the permanent exhibition of Stein's painting collection, works by contemporary artists were regularly exhibited. In addition, rooms were dedicated to changing aspects of Velbert's history, including the Neviges pilgrimage. In the Knight's Hall regularly hosts concerts and theater performances were held. The main building also housed the Velbert, Neviges and Langenberg archives from 1977 to 2001 .

The outer bailey was used for agriculture until 1958. In 1973 some of the farm buildings burned down and were restored from the 1980s. The work on this was completed in 2006.

description

The complex consists of the main castle and a bailey to the south of it. Both parts used to be on their own islands and are now surrounded by a park .

Outer bailey

View of the outer bailey from the northeast

The outer bailey is a three-winged building complex in the shape of a horseshoe, as is often found in Rhenish moated castles. The two-storey buildings made of plastered quarry stone and half-timbered houses once housed stables and the administration of the Hardenberg Office. Wall anchors in the form of dates testify to the years of construction: 1680 and 1693. However, dendrochronological studies have shown that the southern central building of the outer bailey was not built until around 1720/30, and a central wall was only built between 1734 and 1744. Preserved foundations at the two southern corners testify that two round towers once stood there. These were probably put down in the 19th century.

Artillery defense

Two towers of artillery defenses

The main castle is surrounded by a fence, which was renovated between 2014 and 2015, with a slightly trapezoidal floor plan. Their side lengths are between 39 and 58 meters. It consists of a rampart with three-storey, round corner towers with slate-covered conical roofs . On the outside of the ramparts run 4-5 meters high and 2.5-3 meters thick curtains with six key loops each . Behind these walls lies a parapet walk of almost 260 meters in total, which is referred to in literature as casemates . It has barrel vaulted ceilings and, at 1.20 meters, is so wide that two people can walk next to each other. In the past, there was presumably a twelve-meter-high defensive wall with battlements that could be reached from the upper floors of the round towers. On the inside facing the main house, the wall is bounded by another wall, which surrounds the castle building as a 36 × 38 meter rectangle at a distance of about seven meters. The space between the inner wall and the building used to serve as a moat that was fed by the Hardenberger Bach. The same applied to a second trench, which no longer exists today, which enclosed the artillery defense.

The four corner towers have an outer diameter of nine meters and have walls made of greywacke quarry stone, which are 2.3 meters thick on the lower two floors and 1.4 meters thick on the top floor. In the basement they all had a dome made of greywacke, of which only those of the two north towers have survived. From there there was access to the casemate corridors. The tower rooms on the ground floor have subsequently added brick domes . Doors led from this floor to the wall, which could be covered with key fissures from the first floor of the towers through three shooting niches. The baffles of the loopholes are still partially preserved. The upper floors of the towers were and are used by youth groups and clubs, which is why they are heavily overformed.

Main castle

Hardenberg Castle, main building (2006)

The main palace is a square building with two floors, the southern main facade of which is divided into five axes by windows. It is closed by a hipped mansard roof with dormers . Due to the different sizes of the windows, the individual construction phases of the building can be easily recognized from the outside. The core and oldest part of the castle is the former castle house, which today makes up the western part, with an elongated 9.5-19 meter floor plan. Bracket stones testify to the cantilevered buildings that used to exist on the upper floors. The 1.7 meter thick walls were built from Wülfrath limestone and schisty greywacke and have corner blocks . A second wing at right angles was added to this house only a short time later, which today occupies the northern part of the building. The representation rooms such as a large hall with two chimneys were to be found there. Both the design and the materials used are very similar to the castle house, but although this newer part is just as high as the first wing, it only has two storeys with a height of approximately 4.50 meters. The basement is so high that the ground floor of this part is designed as a mezzanine floor.

Above the arched portal on the south side there is an alliance coat of arms of the von Bernsau and von Schaesberg families held by lions. Together with the year 1696, it shows the end of the last renovation work and the owners. The two sons of the builder Isabella Margaretha von Schaesberg, Friedrich Arnold and Johann Sigismund, are named in inscriptions in the entrance of the portal from Haustein , because when Hardenberg Castle was given its present form, Isabella Margaretha and her sister Anna led the guardianship of their two underage Sprouts. The youngest part of the building shows clear differences to the older structure. Its shape is based on this, but its corner blocks are smaller and the window openings show relief arches made of brick. Other building materials were also used.

Very little of the historic interior has been preserved due to redesign in the 1950s. These include the staircase dating from the 18th century, whose stair railing decorated with carvings has simple Louis-seize shapes, and the beamed ceilings from the time it was built. Dendrochronological studies have shown that the wood used comes from trees felled in 1497.

Todays use

The manor house was closed in October 2003 due to severe damage to the roof structure and the masonry , which occurred as a result of the many alterations and changes to the building fabric, and has been undergoing a complete restoration since 2005. The work was temporarily stopped in 2014 due to a lack of funding, but the securing of the statics and the outer skin of the castle was completed at that time. In November 2016, the federal government made 4.2 million euros available for further renovation, the same amount was also raised by the city of Velbert. A working group from the castle association, politics and administration is currently advising on the future use of the ensemble.

Some of the events that previously took place in the castle could be relocated to the renovated west wing of the outer bailey. There is a studio stage with up to 150 seats, which is operated by the Velbert culture and events company. In addition to cabaret and cabaret, plays from children's and youth theater are performed there. In addition, the outer bailey serves as a regular venue for concerts. There is also the possibility of renting rooms in the outer bailey for company events and private parties. The former commercial wing is a particularly popular location for weddings, as the Velbert registry office also holds weddings in two of the rooms there.

literature

  • Ludwig Bender: History of the former rule Hardenberg in the Bergisch region from prehistoric times to its abolition. Langenberg 1879 ( digitized version ).
  • Paul Clemen (Ed.): The art monuments of the cities of Barmen, Elberfeld, Remscheid and the districts of Lennep, Mettmann, Solingen (= The art monuments of the Rhine province . Volume 3, section 2). L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1894, pp. 67-68 ( digitized version ).
  • Kristin Dohmen, Harald Herzog: The main castle of Hardenberg Castle. new insights into residential and military architecture in the Rhineland. In: Yearbook of the Rhenish Preservation of Monuments. Volume 43.Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-335-0 , pp. 49-82.
  • Kristin Dohmen, Joachim Zeune : Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. In: Wartburg Society for Research into Castles and Palaces (Ed.): The Castle in the Plain (= Research on Castles and Palaces. Volume 17) Michael Imhof, Petersberg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7319-0329-1 , p 264-281.
  • Alexander Duncker : The rural residences, castles and residences of the knightly landowners in the Prussian monarchy together with the royal family, house, Fideicommiss and Schattull goods. Volume 16. Berlin 1883 ( digitized version ).
  • Jens Friedhoff : Hardenberg Castle and the "Old Castle" . 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. 291-295.
  • Hans Kisky: Castles and manors in the Rhineland. Based on old engravings and templates (= castles, palaces, mansions. Volume 15). Weidlich, Frankfurt a. M. 1960, pp. 68-69.
  • Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 62-63 .
  • Kurt Wesoly (arrangement): Neviges (= Rheinischer Städteatlas . Volume 77). Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-412-11601-7 .
  • Hermann Maria Wollschläger: Castles and palaces in the Bergisches Land. 2nd Edition. Wienand, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-87909-242-7 , pp. 104-105.
  • Johann C. Zaeslein: Outline of the history of the manor and castle Hardenberg. In: Historical contributions of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein e. V. Issue 9. 1988/89, pp. 13-33.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Hardenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ J. Friedhoff: Hardenberg Castle and the "Old Castle" . 2010, p. 291.
  2. ↑ a b c schloss-hardenberg.de , accessed on December 19, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b c K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 266.
  4. ↑ K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 265.
  5. ↑ Ernst von Oidtman : The Stolberg Castle and its owners, especially the noblemen of Stolberg-Frenz-Setterich. In: Journal of the Aachen History Association (ZAGV) . Volume 15, 1893, ISSN  0065-0137 , p. 9.
  6. ↑ Theodor Joseph Lacomblet (ed.): Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine. Volume 4. Schaub'sche Buchhandlung, Düsseldorf 1858, p. 583, no. 472 ( digitized version ).
  7. ↑ a b c K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New findings on the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 267.
  8. ↑ a b K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 268.
  9. ↑ a b c d K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 270.
  10. ↑ a b c K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 272.
  11. ↑ a b K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 271.
  12. ^ H. Kisky: Palaces and manors in the Rhineland. Based on old engravings and templates. 1960, p. 69.
  13. ↑ a b c d K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 274.
  14. ^ Landesarchiv NRW, Westphalia department, von Wendt family (dep.), Gut Hardenberg - files, no. 2359: Johann Sigismund v. Schaesberg assigns his rights to Hardenberg Jobst Dietrich v. Turns away , accessed December 19, 2016.
  15. ^ Axel Fuesers, Albrecht Graf Finck von Finckenstein: Napoleons Marschall Soult and Louise Berg Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-897-3 , p. 113.
  16. ↑ a b c A. Wemmers, J. Wroblewski: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . 2001, p. 63.
  17. ^ HM Wollschläger: Castles and palaces in the Bergisches Land. 1990, p. 105.
  18. ↑ a b c K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 275.
  19. ↑ a b K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 277.
  20. ↑ a b K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 276.
  21. ↑ K. Dohmen, J. Zeune: Hardenberg Castle. New insights into the building history of a Rhenish moated castle. 2016, p. 273.
  22. ↑ HW Rieck: Restoration work will soon reach its zenith . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . Edition of January 4, 2011 ( online ).
  23. ↑ Moritz Wild: Architectural monuments endangered - architectural monuments saved. North Rhine-Westphalia (Rhineland area). In: Castles and Palaces . Journal for Castle Research and Monument Preservation. Volume 53, No. 3, 2012, ISSN  0007-6201 , p. 196.
  24. ^ Matthias Spruck: WAZ readers visited locked Hardenberg Castle . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . Edition of June 18, 2014 ( online ).
  25. ↑ Hardenberg Castle: The city should draw up a concept in 2017. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. Edition of January 19, 2017 ( online ).

Coordinates: 51 ° 19 ′ 2.7 ″  N , 7 ° 5 ′ 7.5 ″  E