Ringenberg Castle

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Ringenberg Castle, view from the northwest

Ringenberg Castle is a moated castle in the urban area of Hamminkeln in North Rhine-Westphalia . It stands in the southeast of the Ringenberg district , which it gave its name to.

The castle goes back to a castle foundation from the 13th century in the strategically important border area of ​​the territories of the county of Kleve , the archbishopric of Cologne and the duchy of Münster . Destroyed by Dutch troops, the complex came to the baron Alexander von Spaen in the 17th century , who rebuilt it.

After the castle was listed as a historical monument in 1984, the site was registered as a ground monument three years later . Today the building is owned by the city of Hamminkeln, which operates its registry office there. The building is also home to a Derik Baegert Society's studio center and a restaurant.

description

architecture

West wing with protruding risalit

The castle, in the style of the Dutch neo-classical baroque, is a three-winged brick complex surrounded by moats . Its south and east corners are formed by mighty, round corner towers. The southern one has a curly, lantern-crowned hood. The two storeys of the castle are closed off by a hipped roof that carries several iron weather vanes with the year 1661. Classicist triangular gables can be found above the entrances to the two side wings, which are pushed forward like a risalit . A ten-step outside staircase still leads to the former main portal in the central wing , although the design is much simpler than the original.

The building is the former main castle. The former outer bailey to the west is no longer preserved.

Interior

On the ground floor of the south-western side wing, the building has a painted wooden beam ceiling from the end of the 17th century. Because it was hidden under a suspension for a long time, it has largely been preserved in its original state and is therefore almost unique in the Rhineland . In addition to her floral paintings in the style of the high baroque , she shows the coats of arms of Alexander von Spaen and his first wife Henriette von Arnheim.

history

The beginnings

Round tower at the southern corner of the castle (2005)

A document from 1229 mentions the name Ringenberg for the first time. At that time it was owned by the knight and baron Sueder III. von Dingden, who had it built as a permanent castle house in the swampy area of ​​the Isselbruch. When the aristocratic family moved their headquarters there permanently, they called themselves from 1242 "von Ringenberg".

It's called Sueder III. wanted to evade the feudal duty to the Münster prince-bishop and therefore had the castle built in case of a possible defense. A little later, in 1247, he committed himself to the most powerful adversary of Münster, the Archbishop of Cologne, Konrad von Hochstaden . In subsequent years it knew the lord sent to maneuver between the mighty of the land, and his castle times the Bishop of Munster, sometimes the Cologne electors to feudal apply. In the same year that Sueder III. von Münsteraner had received 270 marks for his property, he betrothed his daughter Beatrix to Dietrich Luf I , the brother of Count Dietrich VII. von Kleve , and gave the couple the assurance that they would receive half of their property and half of the Overwrite Burg Ringenberg. The property came after the death of Sueders III. 1265 via his daughter to the Klever Counts, who appointed a bailiff there from 1359 . Count Dietrich IX. von Kleve had Ringenberg expanded into a residence in 1329. In addition, four Dutch families come as experts to have the marshland around Ringenberg drained and reclaimed. The two three- story round towers on the south and east corners of the complex also date from the 14th century .

Rebuilding and destruction

Several renovations followed in the 15th century. Among other things, the increasing use of firearms by installing was hooked bush-compatible key-holes in the basement of the east tower into account. At times the castle was occupied by a large number of castle men. An official letter dated October 14, 1437, for example, names the responsible bailiff and ten other people, including a porter , a gatekeeper and two keepers . As part of the Feud of Soest 1444-1449 also threatened to become Ringberg the scene of fighting, and so was Duke Adolf of Cleves his office castle more secure by having them with a defensive wall surrounded and Zingel let broaden dig. In the second half of the 15th century, the dukes of Kleve were forced to lease Ringenberg several times due to acute debts.

During the Dutch-Spanish War , the fortified castle was badly damaged by Spanish soldiers. There were plans to convert the complex into a pure fortress , but these were never realized. Captured by Dutch troops during the Thirty Years' War in 1629 and finally destroyed in 1635, a contemporary report from 1648 says of the castle "completely ruined and demolished, also completely and even ruined to a stone pile."

Reconstruction under Alexander von Spaen

Ringenberg Castle at the end of the 17th century

In the same year, the Dutch Colonel and Land droste Jakob von Spaen received the uninhabited ruin together with his brother, the Brandenburg General Field Marshal Alexander von Spaen, from Elector Friedrich Wilhelm for his services as a man fief . The von Spaens had actively supported him in the struggle in the States General . From 1648 the brothers built today's castle on the ruins of the medieval castle. Remnants of the fortifications that were still preserved were incorporated into the new buildings, for example the two-meter-thick outer walls of the complex on the trench side. The weather vane on the castle roof states 1661 as the end date of the construction work. With these, Alexander von Spaen commissioned the same builder that he also hired for the renovation of the Dutch castle Biljoen near Velp, a district of Rheden near Arnhem , and who is probably to be found in the environment of the Dutch architect Pieter Post . His name is still unknown today. After Jakob von Spaen's presumably childless death, his brother Alexander became the sole tenant . When the Field Marshal General died, one of his twelve children inherited the palace complex: his son Alexander Bernhard, who sold it to his older brother Friedrich Wilhelm in 1696.

The last direct descendant of Alexander von Spaen was Alexander Sueder von Spaen (1703–1768). Due to massive financial difficulties, he had to sell the castle to his nephew Alexander Dietrich from the Dutch family branch in 1737. However, he stayed on Ringenberg until his death in 1768. His widow Agnes Jacoba von Nassau -Lalecq was also able to use the castle free of charge for the rest of her life. At the end of the 18th century, Ringenberg Castle was mostly orphaned and was managed by a rent master . Under his aegis , the demolition of the two square corner towers in the east and north of the area as well as the former gatehouse , which were demolished between 1733 and 1823, can be dated. The visitor once had to pass the latter in order to reach the castle , which is surrounded on all four sides by moats, via a drawbridge . During the Seven Years' War the castle served as quarters for officers and to accommodate the wounded. During the French Revolution , aristocrats who emigrated from France found refuge there.

The 20th century

After 1848 there were several changes of ownership. Members of the von Salm-Hoogstraeten and Salm-Horstmar families became owners . Since it was not inhabited by them themselves in the second half of the 19th century, but rented out and was only poorly maintained, it fell into disrepair until 1924, Clemens Graf von Plettenberg (1871–1957) acquired the dilapidated palace complex. Immediately after the purchase, he began restoring the badly neglected building. His efforts were suddenly thwarted by the Second World War . The northeast wing of the building was badly damaged by artillery and aerial bombs in 1945. The village of Ringenberg was 40 percent destroyed. After the end of the war, a makeshift restoration and subsequent use of the castle as a church and school took place.

The son of Clemens von Plettenberg, Maximilian (1913–1989), had extensive gardening shops set up around the castle and rented part of the building to the art publisher Der Kreis , whose owner Bodo Bratke, who later founded the Derik-Baegert-Gesellschaft, had one there Gallery opened with changing art exhibitions. Despite the rental income, the von Plettenberg family was ultimately no longer able to adequately maintain the remaining building stock; the west wing of the castle gradually fell into disrepair.

After Maximilian von Plettenberg's death, the Hamminkeln community at the time acquired the facility in 1989 and had it extensively renovated and restored from 1990 to 1994 in accordance with the requirements of monument protection . The aim was to restore the layout of the 17th century true to the original. In this context, archaeological excavations were carried out in the basement from December 1990 to August 1991 . Interesting finds as well as the results of this excavation can be examined in the basement of the castle. During the reconstruction work in the south-west wing, a painted beam ceiling was also exposed, which is very valuable in terms of art history due to its extraordinarily good state of preservation.

Todays use

While the mayor's office was housed in the castle buildings between 1909 and 1911, since 1994 Ringenberg has partly served municipal purposes again. As of this year, the ground floor rooms of the central wing have housed the registry office of the city of Hamminkeln.

A restaurant has been located in the baroque vaulted cellar of the castle since 1998. In addition, some basement rooms are used as an archaeological warehouse.

The rooms in the north wing and some of the middle wing are now used by the Derik-Baegert Society. It maintains a studio center there with eleven studios for young artists and a 320 m² exhibition area. For this reason, interior tours are only possible by prior arrangement or as part of public exhibitions and concerts.

literature

  • Paul Clemen (ed.): The art monuments of the Rees district (= The art monuments of the Rhine province . Volume 2, section 1). Schwann, Düsseldorf 1892, pages 103-105 ( online ).
  • Ferdinand GB Fischer : Excursion destinations on the Lower Rhine. Beautiful castles, palaces and moths. Pomp , Bottrop 2000, ISBN 3-89355-152-2 , pages 30-33.
  • Ludger Fischer : The most beautiful palaces and castles on the Lower Rhine. Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2004, ISBN 3-8313-1326-1 , pages 70-71.
  • Harald Herzog: Hamminkeln - A painted wooden ceiling of the 17th century. In: Preservation of monuments in the Rhineland. Vol. 9, No. 3, 1992, ISSN  0177-2619 , pages 114-117.
  • Christoph Nitrowski (arrangement): Ringenberg (= Rhenish City Atlas . No. 73). Böhlau, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7927-1734-4 .
  • Hulda Pankok : The fate of the Ringenberg Castle. In: Kreisverwaltung Rees (ed.): Heimatkalender 1963. Rheinberg 1962, pages 145–148.
  • Heimerick MJ Tromp: A gender without limits. Alexander von Spaen and his estate. In: Lower Rhine Chamber. Vol. 47, 1991, ISSN  0174-5700 , pages 227-228, 235.
  • Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 122-123 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Ringenberg Castle. Chronicle of the building, surroundings and residents since 1229 , n.d., n.s.
  2. ^ Theodor Ilgen : Westphalian document book . Volume 7. Regensberg'sche Buchhandlung, Münster 1901, No. 330 ( online ).
  3. ^ H. Pankok: Das Schicksal des Schloss Ringenberg , 1962, p. 146.
  4. ^ Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 122 .
  5. ↑ HMJ Tromp: A Gender Without Borders , 1991, p. 227.
  6. ^ Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 123 .
  7. ↑ Carmen Maurer: Investigation of the cellar in Schloss Ringenberg . In: Harald Koschig (Ed.): Archeology in the Rhineland 1991 . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7927-1326-8 , pp. 126-129.
  8. ^ Gudrun Bott: Schloss Ringenberg: Young art in old walls. In: Castles and Palaces . Vol. 47, No. 1, 2006, ISSN  0007-6201 , p. 45.

Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 31 ″  N , 6 ° 36 ′ 53 ″  E