Siegberg
| Siegberg | ||
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 The upper town of Siegen on the summit of the Siegberg. V. l. To right: Marienkirche, Nikolaikirche, town hall. View from the south, from the neighboring mountain Häusling from |
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| height | 307 m above sea level NN | |
| location | North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany | |
| Mountains | Rothaar Mountains , Siegerland | |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 52 '30 " N , 8 ° 1' 46" E | |
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The Siegberg is a 307 m high mountain in the center of the urban area of Siegen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia . The Siegberg is the hill in the city with the oldest documented settlement history. The oldest traces of settlement that still exist there date from the 10th century.
Location and history
The mountain is built on with the upper town of Siegens, the oldest part of the town that has been preserved, and therefore has numerous historical buildings. Examples are the Martinikirche standing on the western spur of the Siegberg (first documented mention in 1311) as well as the Upper and Lower Castle . The Upper Castle is the older and goes back to a medieval hilltop castle, which was first mentioned in 1259. The Siegerland Museum has been housed here since 1905. A monastery had existed on the site of the Lower Castle since 1489, and until 2011 there was a branch of the Attendorn prison in the building. The University of Siegen has been using the building since 2013 . The studio of the regional broadcaster Radio Siegen was located below the Lower Castle until the move in 2017 . The old town on the mountain was surrounded by a massive wall with sixteen towers and the three city gates Löhrtor , Kölner Tor and Marburger Tor , whereby the city was built downhill to the west and the eastern slope of the Siegberg remained undeveloped.
In addition to the castles, the tower of the Siegen Nikolaikirche with the little crown , Siegen's landmark, can be seen from afar.
Various tunnels run through the mountain. Worth mentioning is the Alte Silberkaute mine on the south-eastern slope , which was documented in operation between 1859 and 1923, but probably already existed in the 16th century.
The Siegberg received special attention in 1945, at the end of the Second World War . From the end of 1944 the National Socialist rulers had stored numerous important art treasures from Rhenish churches and museums valued at 3 to 4 billion gold marks around them in the Alte Silberkaute mine tunnel , also known as the Hainer tunnel , located on the eastern slope of the mountain and expanded into an air raid shelter since 1941 to bring armed forces to safety from Allied bombing raids. The art objects temporarily stored in the Hainer tunnel included the Aachen cathedral treasure including the Karlsschreins with the bones of Charlemagne , the cathedral treasures from Trier and the door wings of St. Mary of the Capitol in Cologne from 1065. The art treasures were found there in April 1945 Discovered by US troops, placed under guard and returned to their homes in May 1945. An information board set up in the park of the Upper Castle reminds of this section of history (see photo opposite).
Web links
- Article about the air raid shelter in the Alte Silberkaute in Siegberg on bunker-siegen.de (accessed on August 16, 2010)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Prisoners make room for students , accessed on July 11, 2011
- ↑ Gerd Bäumer: Ore mining in the Siegerland area ( Memento from November 7, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Klaus Dietermann: Siegen under the swastika - an alternative city tour , p. 38 f .: Chapter The Hainer Stollen / Hainer Hut . Publishing house of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Siegerland e. V., Siegen 1983