Zülpich Castle or the Electoral Cologne Sovereign Castle of Zülpich (german: Kurkölnische Landesburg Zülpich) is the landmark and symbol of the town of

Zülpich Zülpich ( ksh, Zöllech) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany between Aachen and Bonn. It belongs to the district of Euskirchen. History The town is commonly agreed to be the site with the Latin name of ''Tolbiacum'', famous for the ...

in the German state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

. Its origins may be traced to a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

castrum In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a po ...

''. The present site was built in the late 14th century as a symbol of sovereignty and outpost of the

archbishops of Cologne The Archbishop of Cologne is an archbishop governing the Archdiocese of Cologne of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and is also a historical state in the Rhine holding the birthplace of Beethoven and northern Rhineland-Palati ...

against the

County of Jülich A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. Razed by French troops at the end of the 17th century, the ruins of the

lowland castle The term lowland castle or plains castle (german: Niederungsburg, Flachlandburg, Tieflandburg) describes a type of castle that is situated on a lowland, plain or valley floor, as opposed to one built on higher ground such as a hill spur. The cla ...

ended up in private hands. The Zülpich manufacturing family of Sieger opened a

schnaps Schnapps ( or ) or schnaps is a type of alcoholic beverage that may take several forms, including distilled fruit brandies, herbal liqueurs, infusions, and "flavored liqueurs" made by adding fruit syrups, spices, or artificial flavorings to neu ...

distillery in the castle until 1870 that operated until the 1980s. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it was badly damaged, was partly rebuilt in the 1950s and acts today as a tourist information bureau and home of the Zülpich History Society.

Description

Zülpich Castle is a modest

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

building with an almost rectangular plan with high towers at the corners. It is one of the classic

quadrangular castle A quadrangular castle or courtyard castle is a type of castle characterised by ranges of buildings which are integral with the curtain walls, enclosing a central ward or quadrangle, and typically with angle towers. There is no keep and frequently ...

s of a type ideal for the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...

. Its austere-looking defences are almost entirely devoid of architectural features and underline its

fortress A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

-like character which befits its location at the southwestern corner of the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

town of Zülpich and its incorporation into the town's fortifications. Burg Zuelpich Hauptportal 19

The enclosed quadrangular structure was originally surrounded by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

up to twelve metres wide. At its southern, western and eastern corners are

round tower A fortified tower (also defensive tower or castle tower or, in context, just tower) is one of the defensive structures used in fortifications, such as castles, along with curtain walls. Castle towers can have a variety of different shapes and ful ...

s that were all once four storeys high. The southern one was reduced to two storeys high in the 19th century as it had fallen into disrepair. In the north and at right angles is a square tower measuring 10×10 metres with corner ashlars that is the only survivor of an older castle. Its shape clearly shows that it was given its present appearance in the 17th century. The two full-height round towers are topped by protruding, open

fighting platform A fighting platform or terraceKaufmann, J.E. and Kaufmann, H.W (2001). ''The Medieval Fortress'', Cambridge, Massachusetts, Da Capo, p. 29. . is the uppermost defensive platform of an ancient or medieval gateway, tower (such as the fighting platfor ...

s with brick

battlement A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

s. The

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

s also use

trachyte Trachyte () is an extrusive igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar. It is usually light-colored and aphanitic (fine-grained), with minor amounts of mafic minerals, and is formed by the rapid cooling of lava enriched with silica and al ...

as a material, while the

ogival arch An ogive ( ) is the roundly tapered end of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object. Ogive curves and surfaces are used in engineering, architecture and woodworking. Etymology The earliest use of the word ''ogive'' is found in the 13th c ...

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

above is made of

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

. All the round corner towers once had residential rooms with fireplaces and

garderobe Garderobe is a historic term for a room in a medieval castle. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives as its first meaning a store-room for valuables, but also acknowledges "by extension, a private room, a bed-chamber; also a privy". The word der ...

s. In the walls (which are up to three metres thick) are

spiral staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

s. The western tower facing the town also acted as a

dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...

. The four wings were formerly two-storey residential ranges with high basement vaults. Today only the thick outside walls have survived; these served a dual purpose as

defensive wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

s with projecting chemins de ronde. The remaining structure of the present-day wing dates to a later period because the original roofs and interior walls from the 17th century have not survived. The external façade of the southwest wall is divided into regular axes by high, narrow,

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

rectangular windows with lighter

cut stone Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

frames that are only interrupted by two garerobes. The best preserved exterior wall is on the southeast side with the main

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...

made from carefully cut

bunter sandstone The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

s to which the

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...

used to lead. Witnesses thereof are a deep

blind niche A niche (CanE, or ) in Classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse. Nero's Domus Aurea (AD 64–69) was the first semi-private dwelling that possessed rooms th ...

, which frames the

of the gateway and used to house the drawbridge, and the still visible roller holes for the chains. Above the portal are two angled coats of arms whose details were probably destroyed by French soldiers in 1794. They used to depict the arms of Frederick of Saarwerden and probably the Archbishopric of Cologne. In addition there is another drawbridge on the southwest side, which gave access to the castle without having to enter the town. For the support buttresses of this bridge, building material from Jülich Palace was used, a building that had stood on the same spot since 1350.

References

P. Clemen: ''Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Euskirchen'', p. 225. R. Janke, H. Herzog: ''Burgen und Schlösser im Rheinland'', p. 67. D. Holterman, H. Herzog: ''Die Euskirchener Burgenrunde'', p. 99. Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: ''Burgen des deutschen Mittelalters. Grundriss-Lexikon''. Flechsig, Wurzburg, 2000, , p. 688. P. Clemen: ''Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Euskirchen'', p. 228. H. Herzog: ''Mauern, Türme und Ruinen'', p. 12. P. Clemen: ''Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Euskirchen'', p. 227.

Literature

Paul Clemen Paul Clemen (31 October 1866 – 8 July 1947) was a German art historian known in particular for his large inventory of monuments in the Rhineland area, many of which were destroyed or severely damaged in World War II. Clemen was born in Leipz ...

(ed.): ''Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Euskirchen''. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1900 (''Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz''. Vol. 4, Part. 4), pp. 223–228
online
. * Harald Herzog: ''Mauern, Türme und Ruinen. Ein Wanderführer zu Burgen und Schlössern im Kreis Euskirchen''. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne,1990, , S. 10–14. * Dirk Holterman, Harald Herzog: ''Die Euskirchener Burgenrunde. Radeln zwischen Erft und Eifel''. Rau, Düsseldorf, 2000, , pp. 98–99

. * Robert Janke, Harald Herzog: ''Burgen und Schlösser im Rheinland''. Greven, Cologne, 2005, , p. 67.

External links

Website of the castle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zulpich Castle Gothic architecture in Germany Heritage sites in North Rhine-Westphalia Castles in the Eifel Electorate of Cologne Buildings and structures in Euskirchen (district)