Rietberg Castle (Rietberg)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Representation of the castle

The Rietberg Castle in Rietberg , partly Castle Eden called, was a castle in the 14th century by the Counts of Rietberg built and served as the seat of the rulers . In the 17th century, the castle complex was redesigned in the Weser Renaissance style. The castle was demolished at the beginning of the 19th century.

history

Original building

The Counts of Rietberg had a new castle built before 1353. This was a little away from the old Rietberg Castle with the settlement growing around it in the eastern part of the city, directly on the Ems. The new castle became the seat of the sovereigns for centuries to come.

The facility was built on a possibly specially heaped up mound of earth. The castle probably corresponded to the building type of a moth . The original facility probably had a round floor plan. Shortly before the expansion, the facility was provided with an inner and an outer ditch. The wall was already provided with two roundels in the entrance area . Drawbridge, revolving gate and barriers further secured access.

In 1557 the castle was built by troops of the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian kingdom circle about six months under siege before it fell and Count Johann II. Was captured. He died in custody in Cologne in 1562. A short time later, the county and the castle were transferred to the East Frisian House of Cirksena .

Extension to the fortress

Count Johann III. had the castle reinforced with modern ramparts, new moats , a new gatehouse as well as upstream ravelins and bastions . Ultimately, an opponent had to overcome six drawbridges and gates before he could get to the actual goal. The re-fortification contradicted previous agreements. The Reichskreis carried out an investigation. But there were no sanctions. The main building was transformed into a palace in the Weser Renaissance style between 1605 and 1623. The New Fortress provided space for a garrison of 300 men. But it was mostly occupied by only about 60 men. A list from 1690 shows that there were two cartoons , five twelve-pound, six six-pound and one four-pound gun. There were also considerable stocks of hand grenades, muskets, bullets and ammunition.

Further development

After Rietberg fell to the Moravian von Kaunitz family after 1699 , the sovereigns no longer resided in the county. The government held office for a while from the castle before moving to the Münte house in 1745. The castle fell into disrepair, the southern wing was destroyed by fire in 1755, and the entire complex was demolished in 1802/1803.

In 1822 Prince Aloysius von Kaunitz-Rietberg sold his possessions in the former county to the entrepreneur Friedrich Ludwig Tenge from Osnabrück . He set up his estate management on the castle grounds. The still existing gatehouse was demolished in 1846 and a new manor house was built in 1870. The Tenge-Rietberg family still lives in the Münte house in the western part of Rietberg, where a second-generation castle was built around 1302, which later served as the count's bailiwick, residence of the mint master, seat of the county’s government and chamber administration and the residence of the authorized representative. The current building was erected between 1743 and 1746 on a high basement as a three-wing structure and around 1900 was furnished by District Administrator Woldemar Tenge in the neo-Renaissance style.

The Rietberger Fischteiche nature reserve , which covers 50 hectares , emerged  from the temporary use of the castle's moats as fish ponds . You can still see the ramparts from the 17th century and Schlossallee . The Johanneskapelle from 1748, which was probably built by a builder from Moravia, is still there.

literature

  • Hermann Eickhoff: Rietberg Castle. Contributions to its history (Heimatkundliche Reihe, Volume 3). Local history association of the city of Rietberg Rietberg 1989
  • Handbook of Historic Places. Volume 3: North Rhine-Westphalia. Stuttgart 1970, pp. 644-645.
  • Alwin Hanschmidt : The state of defense of Rietberg Castle in 1690 . In: Westfälische Zeitschrift Vol. 122 1972 pp. 285–289

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 47 ′ 57.4 "  N , 8 ° 26 ′ 8.5"  E