The Kasselburg is a
ruined
Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...
hill castle
A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German ''Höhenburg'' used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles a ...
on a 490-metre-high
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
massif in
Pelm
Pelm is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Gerolstein, whose se ...
near
Gerolstein
Gerolstein () is a town in the Vulkaneifel district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Gerolstein is a local municipality of the ''Verbandsgemeinde Gerolstein''. It has been approved as a '' Luftkurort'' (spa town).
History
As early as the Sto ...
in the county of
Vulkaneifel
Vulkaneifel () is a district (''Kreis'') in the northwest of the state Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the least densely populated district in the state and the fourth most sparsely populated district in Germany. The administrative centre of ...
in the German state of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
.
Description
![KasselburgTorturm](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/KasselburgTorturm.jpg)
The
symbol of the Kasselburg is its 37-metre-high, double tower, which functioned as a
gate tower
A gate tower (german: Torturm) is a tower built over or next to a major gateway.
Usually it is part of a medieval fortification. This may be a town or city wall, fortress, castle or castle chapel. The gate tower may be built as a twin tower on ...
and
tower house
A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...
, whose origins are not precisely clear. Hitherto it had been assumed that the lords of
Blankenheim Blankenheim may refer to:
Places
*Blankenheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, a municipality in western Germany
* Blankenheim, Saxony-Anhalt, a municipality in eastern Germany
*Blankenheim Castle, a schloss above the village of Blankenheim in the Eifel mo ...
had built it shortly after 1335, but structural investigations have shown that the tower underwent several phases of construction and cannot just be the work of one
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
. The gate probably lost its guarding function with the expansion of the castle from 1452. It is from that period that the large
outer bailey, with its ''
burgmann
From the 12th century in central Europe, a ''Burgmann'' (plural: ''Burgmannen'' or modern term ''Burgmänner'', Latin: ''oppidanus'', ''castrensus'') was a knight ministeriales or member of the nobility who was obliged to guard and defend castles. ...
'' houses and domestic buildings, dates.
The double tower is open to the public and has a good view of the surrounding area but, despite its size, is not a ''
bergfried
''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under Germ ...
'' (fighting tower). The latter, built around 1200, is smaller and stands in the eastern part of the
inner bailey
The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer w ...
. It has a square ground plan and was turned into a tower house in the 14th century.
Also part of the inner ward is the almost 33-metre-long ''
palas
A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval ''Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson ...
'', which dates to the 14th century.
History
![Kasselburg 008x](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Kasselburg_008x.jpg)
The castle was built in the 12th century. Its owners may have been the lords of Castel, but this is not entirely certain. The castle was first mentioned in 1291 as the ''Castilburg''. In 1314, it is called ''Castelberch''.
According to the current state of research, it is not clear who the owner of the castle was before 1335. However, it is certain that Gerhard V of Blankenheim became its owner following a division of
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officia ...
in that year and thus founded the Blankenheim-Kasselburg line. In 1406, this line of Blankenheims, which had been elevated to the countship, died out with Count Gerhard VII. The castle then passed by marriage to William I of Loen and thus to
Heinsberg
Heinsberg (; li, Hinsberg ) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the seat of the district Heinsberg. It is situated near the border with the Netherlands, on the river Wurm, approx. 20 km north-east of Sittard and 30 km ...
.
Other owners followed, including the
counts of the Mark
The County of Mark (german: Grafschaft Mark, links=no, french: Comté de La Marck, links=no colloquially known as ) was a county and state of the Holy Roman Empire in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle. It lay on both sides of the Ruhr River ...
,
dukes of Arenberg
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
and
prince-electors of Trier. Many interest groups have claimed the Kasselburg for themselves throughout history, so that in 1674 the
Imperial Chamber Court
The ''Reichskammergericht'' (; ; la, Iudicium imperii) was one of the two highest judicial institutions in the Holy Roman Empire, the other one being the Aulic Council in Vienna. It was founded in 1495 by the Imperial Diet in Worms. All legal ...
of
Wetzlar
Wetzlar () is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany. It is the twelfth largest city in Hesse with currently 55,371 inhabitants at the beginning of 2019 (including second homes). As an important cultural, industrial and commercial center, the un ...
was called upon to put an end to the property disputes. When the judges awarded the castle to the dukes of Arenberg, the buildings soon served as barracks for the Duke of Arenberg's
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
. This marked the beginning of the decline of the castle: in the 18th century it was still temporarily the seat of an Arenberg forester, but by 1744 it was described as dilapidated.
After
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
seized the castle in 1794, it went to the
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
in 1815. An impulse to rescue the ruin came unexpectedly from King
Frederick William IV
Frederick William IV (german: Friedrich Wilhelm IV.; 15 October 17952 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, reigned as King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 to his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to ...
in 1838. After a visit he initiated repair work, and after the completion of the
railway line from Cologne to Trier, the railway company donated 1,000
talers to open up the then already famous double tower in order to "offer its passengers something".
At the beginning of the 20th century, the state
historic preservation
Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...
authorities carried out further
restoration. The Castle Administration of Rhineland-Palatinate, who took over Kasselburg in 1946, also had conservation measures carried out. In the meantime, the site has been placed under the care of the Directorate for Castles, Palaces and Ancient Monuments of the
General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate, since 1998 the successors to the former Castle Administration.
Literature
* Alfred Dahn:
Die Kasselburg. Geschichte und heutige Verwendung.' In: Eifelverein (publ.): ''Jahrbuch des Kreises Daun 1976. Erzählungen, Geschichten und aktuelle Daten.'' Weiss, Monschau 1977, , pp. 19ff.
* Matthias Kordel: ''Kasselburg.'' In: ''Die schönsten Schlösser und Burgen in der Eifel.'' 1st edition, Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen, 1999, , pp. 32–33.
* Michael Losse: ''Kasselburg.'' Beitrag in: ''Hohe Eifel und Ahrtal'' (Joachim Zeune (ed.)). Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart, 2003. pp. 74–77 .
External links
*
The Kasselburgat "Burgen, Schlösser, Altertümer Rheinland-Pfalz"
*
Artist's impressionby Wolfgang Braun
{{Authority control
Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate
Heritage sites in Rhineland-Palatinate
Castles in the Eifel
Vulkaneifel
Falconry