Sparrenburg

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Sparrenburg
View of the castle from the west

View of the castle from the west

Alternative name (s): Sparrenberg Castle and Fortress
Creation time : before 1250, expansion until 1578
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Preserved, partly free replica
Standing position : Sovereign
Place: Bielefeld
Geographical location 52 ° 0 '53.8 "  N , 8 ° 31' 36.4"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 0 '53.8 "  N , 8 ° 31' 36.4"  E
Height: 180  m above sea level NN
Sparrenburg (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Sparrenburg

The Sparrenburg (actually: Sparrenberg Castle and Fortress , previously also Sparenburg ) is a restored fortress in Bielefeld's Mitte district . The Sparrenburg is located on the 180 m high Sparrenberg in the Teutoburg Forest and overlooks the nearby city center by a good 60 m. Its current appearance goes back essentially to the 16th and 19th centuries. The Sparrenburg is the northernmost preserved spur castle in Germany and is considered a landmark of Bielefeld.

history

The first centuries

The Sparrenburg was built as a castle before 1250 by the Counts of Ravensberg . It served to secure the Bielefeld Pass over the Teutoburg Forest, as the ruler's seat of the Counts of Ravensberg and to protect the city of Bielefeld, founded around 1214. Since the establishment of a protective castle usually preceded the founding of a town , it has recently been assumed that there was an older predecessor building. On the other hand, the old town of Bielefeld (in the narrower sense) could not be attacked from the Osning (old name of the Teutoburg Forest) before the invention of firearms and after the construction of the Sparrenburg the new town was laid out between the castle and the old town . The castle was first mentioned in documents in 1256.

Count Bernhard von Ravensberg died childless in 1346 . The Calvelage - Ravensberg house died out. The castle now fell through marriage to Count Gerhard I von Jülich-Berg , who had been married to Bernhard's niece Margarete since 1338 . The function of a ruler's seat was omitted. On November 18, 1377, Emperor Charles IV stayed at the castle. From 1410 to 1428 the Sparrenburg served one last time as the ruler's seat for Count Wilhelm II of Ravensberg , who came from the line of the House of Jülich that ruled the Duchy of Berg. In 1511 the Sparrenburg changed hands again: Duke Wilhelm von Jülich-Berg , who was also Count von Ravensberg, died and the county and castle fell to his son-in-law, Duke Johann von Jülich-Kleve-Berg .

Expansion of the castle into a fortress

Building history of the Sparrenburg. It is unclear exactly where the medieval castle hall stood. The drawing is therefore only a guess.

As more and more guns and other firearms came into use after the invention of gunpowder , the old castle was expanded into an early modern fortress that could withstand cannon fire and use its own guns. Around 1530 a gun tower (battery tower) was built to the west - only connected to the actual castle by a stone arch bridge , which now also made it possible to use its own guns for defense.

1535 began on behalf of Johann III. of Jülich-Cleves-Berg , the expansion to a planned rondellierten fortress. After the north corner was provided with the Kiekstattrondell, the upper gun platform of which was exposed in 2007, a few years later the Schuster- and Marienrondell were built on the south-east side. The gun turret and the three rondels were connected by curtains (fortress walls). A new fortress gate house was built 30 m in front of the old castle gate. In the area between the inner castle and the new ramparts, paths and squares to casemate rooms and connecting corridors ("underground" rooms and corridors) were vaulted and then the area was filled with earth almost to the top of the curtain wall.

At the western corner, the earlier gun turret, which was in an unfavorable position, resulted in a weak point in the fortress structure. To solve this problem, the Italian fortress builder Alessandro Pasqualini was called to Bielefeld in 1556 . He designed the "Scherpentiner" bastion for the western corner - based on the then modern Italian fortress construction. The turret was integrated into the bastion as a flank. The name Scherpentiner can only be found in the Sparrenburg, its origin goes back to the serpentines (serpentine = Italian snake, German term: field snake ), light artillery pieces of the 15th and 16th centuries.

The result was the largest fortress in Westphalia and one of the best-preserved renaissance fortifications in northern Germany.

Practical tests

View from the Schusterrondell on the Scherpentiner

In 1609, Johann Wilhelm (Jülich-Kleve-Berg), the last duke of the Jülich family, died without male descendants. The community government agreed by the main heirs Johann Sigismund (Brandenburg) and Wolfgang Wilhelm (Pfalz-Neuburg) in 1609 failed, which led to the Jülich-Klevischen succession dispute. In 1612 the castle was damaged by an earthquake. The Xanten Treaty, signed in 1614, ended the succession dispute. The castle fell to Brandenburg-Prussia , which initially granted the allied republic of the Seven United Provinces the right of occupation . The Dutch occupation arrived in November 1615. In the course of the Thirty Years' War , which broke out in 1618 , the Dutch had to retreat from the overpowering Spaniards, led by Count Johann von Rietberg . In 1625, the Brandenburg colonel Gent tried in vain to recapture the Sparrenburg with the help of the Ravensberg farmers. In 1636, troops of the Swedish Empire and the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel besieged the Spaniards for almost a year before they had to hand over the fortress in 1637. In 1642 the Sparrenburg was left to the French allies. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 confirmed that it belonged to Brandenburg-Prussia. In the following years, Friedrich Wilhelm (Brandenburg) , the Great Elector, stayed at the fortress several times. It served him as a Westphalian secondary residence. Two of his children were born here. During the Dutch War , the Sparrenburg withstood its last sieges by the bishopric of Münster (1673) and the Kingdom of France (1679).

Decay and romantic renewal

At the end of the 17th century, the Sparrenburg no longer met military requirements. It was therefore partly used as a prison and partly left to decay. The outer walls and buildings on the castle were removed. At the instigation of King Frederick II , the stones from the demolished components were used to build the 55 barracks that still exist today on Hans-Sachs-Straße in the 1770s. Some of the stones were sold.

In the course of the castle romance of the 19th century, the "Comité for the restoration of the tower on the Sparenberge" was founded in Bielefeld and carried out the reconstruction of the tower, which took place in 1842/43. The lower, still teardrop-shaped, old part of the keep was built over with the new, now round observation tower .

In 1879 the city of Bielefeld was able to acquire the facility from the Prussian state for a price of 8,934.90 marks, although the original value was estimated at 70,000.00 marks. According to plans by the architect E. Hillebrand, after long discussions about the design of the building, the construction of the new palace building began in 1886 . On April 24, 1888, the neo-Gothic building with a ballroom, restaurant and museum rooms was handed over.

In the courtyard was in 1900 in the presence of Emperor Wilhelm II. , The (nominal) last Counts of Ravensberg, one of Fritz Schaper created monument of the Great Elector set up.

View from the fountain over the excavation site to the Kiekstattrondell
Kiekstattrondell

War destruction and restorations

Used as a flak position during the Second World War , the Sparrenburg was badly damaged in the air raid on Bielefeld on September 30, 1944, only the tower remained intact.

From 1948 to 1987, clearing and restoration work was carried out almost continuously . From 1955 to 1982 the German Playing Card Museum was housed in the rebuilt farm building.

During the renovation work since 2007, an earlier floor of the defense system has been exposed on the northern Kiekstattrondell. It is three meters below the current level. A staircase was also discovered that leads down to the casemates.

In 2008, the archaeologists uncovered the plan of a large, rectangular building in the area of ​​the main castle. The building, which was built around 1500 according to the architectural forms (sloping base, door frames) was divided into five rooms.

In June 2008, two square, 50 cm wide ventilation shafts lying next to each other were discovered near the outer wall between the Kiekstatt and the windmill roundel, which lead more than eight meters into the depth. While one shaft has a visible opening in the outer wall at this depth, the other shaft leads into a previously unknown vault, which has its floor at a depth of twelve meters and is quite close under the previously known corridor system. The function of these shafts and the space below is largely unclear.

The Sparrenburg visitor center opened on September 17, 2014. The single-storey building with a facade made of stamped concrete was designed by the Swiss architect Max Dudler and houses a ticket counter, the museum shop and a kiosk on just under 80 m 2 . It was built on the southeastern edge of the castle courtyard.

Visits, events and promotions

Keep with palas and excavation area of ​​the medieval palas

The above-ground part of the Sparrenburg can be visited all year round, there is no entry fee. The bridge gate is locked late at night. The other facilities of the Sparrenburg are accessible daily from April to October, including climbing the 31.5 meter high tower and the southeastern part of the 285 meter long underground passages ( casemates ). The north-western part of the underground passages is not accessible with the exception of three guided tours per year, as bats have their refuge there.

One attraction is the Sparrenburgfest, which takes place annually on the last weekend in July, where showmen and traders recreate life in the Middle Ages . The festival took place within the castle wall until 2008 , but then had to move to an area below because of the excavation sites. The organizer is the association Kramer Zunft & Kurtzweyl GmbH .

In order to financially secure the preservation and renovation of the facility, the campaign A stone for the castle was initiated, in which, in return for donations, a stone in the castle wall could be sponsored. With higher donations, a personal engraving of the stone was possible. A total of 3,100 sponsorships were taken on. The possibility of such a sponsorship has not existed since the end of 2006, because only the rondelles of the castle were paved with the engraved stones and the number of sponsorships was thus limited. In view of the estimated renovation costs of 7.5 million euros, the Bielefelder Bürgerstiftung is looking for further donors even after the sponsorship campaign has ended.

The Sparrenburg is regularly the destination of the Hermannslauf , which has been taking place on the last weekend in April since 1972 and currently runs 31.1 km from the Hermannsdenkmal through the Teutoburg Forest to Bielefeld .

In July 2009, scenes from the film "The Bielefeld Conspiracy" were shot over four days on the current excavation site, the Kiekstattrondell and in the casemates. All three sets as well as the Graf von Ravensberg are important elements of the film's plot.

The veiled rafter castle.

From September 21 to 24, 2012, the tower of the Sparrenburg was covered with red fabric by members of the Bielefeld interior decorators guild. The occasion was the celebrations for the 125th anniversary of the Bielefeld district craft association.

In response to the terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015 in Paris , the Sparrenburg was illuminated in the colors of the French flag on November 15, 2015 .

FFH area

The Sparrenburg parks are an important feeding habitat for bats ; the underground vaults are used as quarters for around 10 bat species. The buildings and the surrounding parks are therefore designated as FFH areas (FFH number 3917-301, area approx. 6 ha). Target species are above all the Bechstein bat , the pond bat and the great mouse-eared bat , which have their winter quarters in the castle.

See also

literature

  • Johannes Altenberend / Roland Siekmann: Sparrenburg archaeological - The excavations 2007 to 2013 Bielefeld tpk-Regionalverlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-936359-61-9
  • Carmen Hochmann: Sparrenburg. Story (s) for children. Bielefeld: tpk-Regionalverlag, 2004, ISBN 978-3936359046 .
  • Andreas Kamm: Sparrenburg. Castle - fortress - landmark. Bielefeld: tpk-Regionalverlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-936359-27-5 .
  • Michael Wessing: The Sparrenburg. From fortification to landmark. Bielefeld: Westfalen Verlag, 2000, ISBN 978-3889180780 .

Web links

Aerial view from the southwest
Commons : Sparrenburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Andreas Kamm, Sparrenburg Castle and Fortress Status: 11. – 14. Retrieved July 25, 2017
  2. ^ Neue Westfälische, local part Bielefeld, October 11, 2007
  3. Virginia Zangs, Living Structure: Sparrenburg Visitor Center , DETAIL Das Architekturportal , September 24, 2014
  4. Sparrenburg visitor center , Archi Lovers , pub. 11/25/2014, images: Stefan Müller
  5. The tower of the Sparrenburg is smaller than expected in the Westfalen-Blatt of February 6, 2020, accessed on February 6, 2020
  6. ^ Andreas Kamm: Sparrenburg. Castle - fortress - landmark. Kiper, Bielefeld 2007, p. 53.
  7. ^ Neue Westfälische, local part Bielefeld, 23 September 2012
  8. Natura 2000 areas in North Rhine-Westphalia , accessed on January 31, 2016