Moers Castle
The Moers castle is the oldest known building in the city Moers . Little is known today about the castle's early past , as much information about its construction was lost during the great city fire in 1605. The castle is located between the fort square and the city park in the center of Moers . Today it houses the Grafschafter Museum and the city theater .
Otto Ottsen wrote in his book The History of the City of Moers : "I consider the history of the castle in Moers to be one of the least clarified chapters in the history of the city" . More recent structural investigations by the Rhenish Office for the Preservation of Monuments and excavations in the years 2000 to 2003, however, allow some statements about the history of the building.
Emergence
The first building of the castle was erected around 1200. It was a square tower made of tuff , i.e. volcanic rock, which was mainly found in the Eifel . The material probably comes from the former Roman camp in Asciburgium . The edge lengths of the massive Romanesque tower were around seven meters. No verifiable statement can be made about its height, as nothing of the tower exists today apart from the foundation walls and the ground floor. These remains can be found in the castle courtyard, where they are still a few meters deep in the ground.
It is assumed that the tower of the Moers city coat of arms should represent this first castle tower in a stylized form. Another theory says that the so-called sea tower (a tower of the old Moers city wall) was the model for the coat of arms.
In the course of the 13th century, the lords of the castle raised a ring-shaped hill around the tower, which was necessary because of the boggy subsoil in order to be able to erect further buildings. The existing tower was probably demolished down to the ground floor and used for backfilling. This hill was surrounded on the outside with an approx. 3 m thick and 12 m high curtain wall made of recycled Roman field firestones, probably also from Asciburgium. The Moerser Ringmauerburg is one of the oldest preserved brick structures in the Rhineland. As a result of later extensions, first to the outside (15th and 16th centuries) and later (19th century) to the inside towards the castle courtyard, the curtain wall in the preserved part of the building represents a central inner wall tapering storey by storey.
development
The oldest known image of the city and castle dates from 1580 and shows a presumably even older state of construction. The Moers riding master Arnold van Heurdt (1651–1705) signed this plan again in the 17th century. Only his drawing has survived, the original has been lost. In this illustration, the west wing of the ring wall castle can still be seen as the main building of the medieval complex with north and south towers. The battlements that can be seen between the towers today represent the corridor of the building that still exists. To protect against cannon balls, the old castle was surrounded by walls. These then served in the 15./16. Century as foundations for the extension of the castle to the outside. The so-called Palas, which was created between the kennel walls and the old curtain wall, contains the spacious knight's hall . In the course of the expansion, the old north tower was torn down and today's tower was built in the entrance area. The ring wall castle gradually became a peripheral castle. It was now much more representative and comfortable and now corresponded to the important status of the Counts of Moers in the 15th century.
A similar map by Johannes Mercator is available from 1591 . At that time the castle already consisted of several elongated buildings built together. These are leaning against each other in a square. From most descriptions of the castle, however, a rounded (polygonal) design emerges. All the buildings had a pointed roof and were covered with tiles. On closer inspection, you can already see the large tower with the small bell tower as it still stands today.
The castle was surrounded by a moat, which in turn was surrounded by a defense system consisting of ramparts, walls and bastions . Like the old and new towns in the north, the structure stood in the water of the so-called "sea", the dammed Moerse. There was only one bridge over to the old town, which connected to a large gate in the north of the facility. The south tower and the chapel of the castle, which were still in existence at that time and were reported about as early as 1466, are difficult to see.
After Moritz von Oranien captured the city , he had the castle reinforced with five bastions for 100,000 guilders from 1601 to 1604. The city of Moers was also fortified from 1610 to 1620 according to the old Dutch system, which was developed during the Dutch struggle for freedom. Here you can clearly see the rounded shape of the lock mentioned above.
The area, which used to have a square shape, was now fortified in a star shape. The moats around the castle can still be seen in their star shape on an aerial photo in the castle. In the meantime, however, they have been partially rebuilt or overbuilt. The old and the new town were combined in a fortress. New trenches were dug and new walls were built.
The next drawing is from 1663. It shows Moers Castle and the city in plan. At that time, Moers was considered an "impregnable fortress", provided it was conscientiously defended by the residents. The fortifications were in 1763 after the Seven Years' War at the behest of Frederick II of Prussia. - Moers became 1702 Prussian - looped . With this measure, the moat between the castle and the city was removed and the existing Haagsche Bridge became superfluous. Some trenches were filled and the material needed was taken from the inner walls of the defenses. The resulting garden land was partly sold in parcels and partly donated as church land. The castle was used as the royal office.
In 1765 the castle was already in a rather brittle condition and was in urgent need of renovation, but the basic structure was largely preserved, as the floor plan of the geometer Arnold Brix made around 1800 shows. In 1802 the castle was described as a "dilapidated building that stood there without windows and only with the entrance door" (Otto Ottsen).
The eastern part of the castle was demolished and a windmill and a house were to be built there. Due to problems with the ownership of the land belonging to the castle purchase, it was resold in 1810. The textile entrepreneur Friedrich Wintgens, who was the most important entrepreneur in Moers at the time, bought it for 2,000 francs. He had already converted the buildings east of the castle (formerly accommodation for French and Dutch troops) into a house and factory. The inner fortifications were demolished and the castle courtyard was planted with trees. Parts of the castle property were sold and the rest of the area was converted into gardens and parks by the new owner. Two to three-story brick extensions and a fundamentally different window arrangement were added to the inner courtyard side. In 1836, Wintgens had the moated wilderness converted into today's palace gardens.
In 1905 the city of Moers acquired at the instigation of the Moers District Court Councilor Dr. Hermann Boschheidgen built the castle and made it available as a museum to the local history association founded by Boschheidgen. It was not until 1938 that the palace was refurbished as a museum building without any significant impairment of the substance. In the museum function, Moers Castle serves to convey local history and as a cultural meeting point for exhibitions and theater performances up to the present day.
The lords of the castle
The first evidence of medieval settlement in the area of Moers city center is provided by the register of the Werden monastery . After that, "Murse" was a small rural settlement in the area of Mühlenstrasse around 900. With the construction of the castle, the citizens moved near the fortifications, so that the Bonifatiuskapelle, the oldest settlement in Moers, was outside the old town in “Buytendorp” (outer village or suburb). The "Lords of Murse" were first mentioned in 1186. Later there is talk of the "Counts of Murse". How they got their title is unknown. In the beginning they tried to make themselves independent from the Duke of Cleves. After they got into financial difficulties, they had to recognize Kleve's feudal sovereignty in order to be able to solve their problems.
Again financial problems led to the Moers counts losing their rule completely. Count Bernhard had to free his father Vincent from prison. For this purpose, the county was transferred to Wilhelm von Wied, a grandson of Vincent. This eventually bequeathed the county to Wilhelm II. Von Neuenahr, so that a double county was created. Wilhelm II already professed Calvinism . His son Hermann made the new confession a general denomination in his domain in the 1560s. The Moers monastery, located close to the castle, was expropriated and became the property of the counts.
Because Hermann had no children, the county went to his sister Walpurga, who was married to Count Adolf von Neuenahr-Alpen-Moers and Limburg for the second time. He completed his uncle's plan to found a Latin school , so that the Adolfinum bore his name. He resolved the dispute with the Catholic Church over the monastery property through a compensation payment, so that the rooms were available for the "schola illustris". At the same time, Adolf created a reformed church order in Moers. Moers was thus included in the religious disputes and occupied by the Spanish in 1586. Walpurga fled to Arnhem and in order to enforce her claim she gave the county to her nephew Moritz von Orange, who liberated the city in 1597. The following 100 years under Dutch rule were peaceful and economically successful. In the course of the succession, Moers finally came to Prussia and became an enclave of little importance. Kleve and Wesel were more important for Prussia. The castle was no longer of any importance as a mansion and was eventually sold in private ownership.
- Owners list
- 1256–1294: Count Dietrich von Moers
- 1294–1346: Count Dietrich III.
- 1346–1356: Friedrich von Moers
- 1356–1365: Count Dietrich IV.
- 1365–1372: Mr. Johann
- 1372–1417: Count Friedrich II.
- 1417–1448: Count Friedrich III.
- 1448–1499: Count Vincenz von Moers
- 1500–1501: Count Bernhard von Moers
- 1501–1519: Wilhelm III. from Wied
- 1519–1552: Count Wilhelm II of Neuenahr
- 1553–1578: Count Hermann von Neuenahr -Moers
- 1578–1589: Count Adolf von Neuenahr together with Countess Anna Walburga von Neuenahr
- 1589–1594: Countess Anna Walburga von Neuenahr
- 1594–1625: Moritz of Orange
- 1586–1594: Spanish rule in Moers
- 1597: Moritz von Orange frees Moers
- 1625–1647: Friedrich Heinrich of Orange
- 1647–1650: Wilhelm II.
- 1650–1667: Electress Luise Henriette (to whom a memorial was placed in front of the castle, see picture above)
- 1667–1702: Wilhelm III. of Orange-Nassau (from 1689 King of England)
- from 1702: King Friedrich I of Prussia
- 1794–1815: French rule in Moers
- from 1807: Notary Arnold Weinhagen buys the castle for 4325 francs.
- from 1810: Textile entrepreneur Gerhard Friedrich Arnold Wintgens buys the castle for 2000 francs.
- 1905: The castle becomes the property of the city of Moers
use
Grafschafter Museum
In the rooms of today's Moerser Schloss there is the Grafschafter Museum, which with its 19 accessible rooms informs the visitor about the life of the people at the castle and in the city at that time. The rooms include the large, very high knight's hall, in which you can see a long, ancient table and artfully crafted tapestries, so-called tapestries , from the 17th century. In the so-called “Grafschafter bedroom” there is a four-poster bed and a cabinet made of carved oak from 1791. In Söller , which was renovated in 1607, there is an exhibition of old toys. Other rooms include the “Biedermeier room”, the “rural living room” and the “fireplace room”. There is also a full grocery store and a full miner's pharmacy . The exhibition is complemented by a lot of individual pieces of furniture, ceramics, traditional costumes and household items from everyday culture. There are historical finds from the Roman era in Asciburgium and an extensive collection of dollhouses and historical toys in the spacious Söller of the castle. In addition, the museum holds several thematic exhibitions every year.
The museum has been closed since 2009 due to renovation work. The reopening took place on September 8, 2013.
Moers Castle Theater
The Moerser Schlosstheater has been located in the basement of the castle with its own entrance from the outside since 1975. The founding as a studio and chamber theater goes back to the suggestion of the later first director Holk Freytag . The city had the opportunity to create its own cultural focal point on the outskirts of the Ruhr area, while at the same time increasing the region's attractiveness as a residential and shopping center. Due to monument preservation requirements, the time from the council decision in 1969 to the inauguration in 1975 dragged on for several years and was partially bridged by demonstrations in the summer time in the castle courtyard.
In competition with the stages in Duisburg, Krefeld and Düsseldorf, it was not easy to find your own profile. Right from the start, Holk Freytag chose to stage well-known pieces of modern literature (Heine, Brecht, Büchner, Peter Weiss), but also classics such as Euripides and Aeschylus, provocatively and experimentally, often with creative design of the audience area and stage. With this concept he quickly won not only the Moers audience, but also the attention and recognition of the national cultural press. The subsequent directors of the always small but creative, young and committed ensemble also followed the concept, which is now to be regarded as a tradition. In addition to the more classic performances, there was a daily improvised soap à la Lindenstrasse, a detective play in the rooms of the castle or a performance with the participation of older Moers residents. To mark the 700th anniversary of the city, “Dante's Inferno Moers” was theatrically implemented by boat on the wide city moat.
Intendants :
- 1975–1988: Holk Freytag
- 1988-1989: Pia Bierey
- 1990–1999: Rupert Seidl
- 2000-2003: Johannes Lepper
- since 2003: Ulrich Greb
Castle and leisure park
Since the razing of the fortifications by Frederick the Great in 1763, the fortress island and the former stone walls and moats had deteriorated more and more. Thorn bushes grew over the ruined island and the citizens of Moers avoided walking along it. Only a few herds of goats, undemanding enough, were sent to graze in the wild. Wintgens, who had acquired large areas south of his business from 1810 and initially used them for agriculture, had them redesigned into a private park from 1836 by the well-known garden architect Maximilian Weyhe from Düsseldorf. In accordance with Weyhe's style, which followed the fashion, the result was not a baroque garden , which is more common for such a property , but a natural facility in the English style with curved paths, spacious areas and solitary trees that were grouped in such a way that an alternating play of light and shadow and always new perspectives resulted in a special charm. Weyhe's work is not proven by plans, but only by the late testimony of the Moers horticulturalist Nickertz. The garden designed in this way encompassed today's eastern part of the park, delimited by the main path running from the castle in a north-south direction and the eastern rampart to the still existing castle moat. After the death of Friedrich Wintgens, this park was sold by his son Heinrich to the district administrator of Hochwächter and from him to his successor, district administrator John von Haniel .
Heinrich Wintgens, for his part, who still lived in the castle, commissioned Peter Hermann Nickertz in 1874 to expand the western part of the site in a similar way. This area is more closely criss-crossed by paths and, compared to the eastern part, is planted much more with exotic trees such as copper beeches, chestnuts, winged nuts, tree of gods and black pines. A special feature of this area is the narrow route along the wide city moat in the west, through which the water is also included in the design. This part was limited to the north by an orchard and vegetable garden, which in turn was integrated into the park in 1910.
With the purchase of the parks in 1904 from the Wintgens family and in 1913 by the district administrator of Haniel, the city, which was thriving through mining, was able to open the parks to the public from 1906 and 1914 respectively. The area south of the moat, which was still inside the wall, initially remained unused. The northern border ran directly on the private garden of the district administrators, who at that time used the so-called “White House”, the former residential building of the doctor Wittfeld, as their residence. In 1930, the Park Cafe, which is still popular today as a restaurant with beer garden, was built as an extension to the palace complex. In 1932, the southern part was designed as a “people's and citizen's park” with large lawns and wide views according to plans by Moers garden inspector Max Massias. In the southern tip, a heather garden with birch and juniper was created due to the sandy subsoil. The former kitchen garden of the Wintgens family east of the castle was transformed into a lawn, today's rose garden. From 1933, the district council's garden with a romantic pond and a small hill that served as a patio was integrated and the Hector monument was erected.
Due to the special importance for the history and structure of the city of Moers, the ramparts were placed under protection as a monument area in 1983 and the castle park was elevated to a monument in 1989 . For this purpose, eight individual trees were raised to natural monuments . In 2004/2005 the park was finally included as a particularly excellent example in the street of garden art between the Rhine and the Meuse .
In the 1960s, in the immediate vicinity of the castle park, the area along the Moersbach in the south-west was converted into a spacious leisure park with tennis, football, barbecue and playgrounds, a toboggan hill, petting zoo, a blind bed, a large pond for model water sports and a japanese garden .
City park with island
City park in autumn
View of the Wilhelm Greef monument
City park with birch grove
Petting zoo in the amusement park
Japanese garden
literature
- Hermann Altgelt : History of the Counts and Lords of Moers , Düsseldorf 1845
- Grafschafter Museums- und Geschichtsverein eV: Moers and the Castle Park , self-published, Moers 2012
- Landschaftsverband Rheinland (Ed.): Moers. Castle - cultural center. Festschrift for the 100th anniversary of the Grafschafter Museum and History Association in Moers eV Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft , Worms 2004. ISBN 3-88462-205-6
- Otto Ottsen: The history of the city of Moers. Volume 1, self-published by Otto Ottsen, Moers 1950
- Margret Wensky, Böhlau Verlag (ed.): The history of the city from the early days to the present , Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-412-04600-0
Web links
- Photo album from Moers Castle
- The castle at burgen-und-schloesser.net
- The chimney room of the castle
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard Friedrich Arnold Wintgens, in: Frank Heidermanns genealogische Forschungen
- ^ Message from the City of Moers , accessed on April 29, 2013.
Coordinates: 51 ° 26 ′ 58 ″ N , 6 ° 37 ′ 31 ″ E
