The

ruins 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 ...

of Nideggen Castle (german: Burg Nideggen) are a symbol of the town of

Nideggen Nideggen () is a town in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the river Rur, in the Eifel hills, approx. 15 km south of Düren. Nideggen is known for its ruined, but partly restored ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and are owned by the county of Düren. The rectangular

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 ...

was the seat of the powerful counts and dukes of Jülich and had a reputation in the

Middle Ages 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 period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

of being impregnable.

History

Nideggen Castle was built by the

counts Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

of Jülich in the strategically important border area of the then

Herrschaft The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...

("Lordship") of

Monschau Monschau (; french: Montjoie, ; wa, Mondjoye) is a small resort town in the Eifel region of western Germany, located in the Aachen district of North Rhine-Westphalia. Geography The town is located in the hills of the North Eifel, within the Ho ...

. It was intended to protect the inherited territory of the counts against the interests of the archbishops of Cologne. The foundation stone for the castle was laid in 1177 by William II on the construction of the ''

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 ...

'', which was erected within sight of the imperial castle of Berenstein. It was located about three kilometres to the west and was built around 1090. After its almost complete destruction around 1200, it served as a quarry for the extension of Nideggen's castle tower. The yellowish ashlar blocks of the Berensteins differ markedly from the red-coloured sandstone blocks forming the lower half of the tower, which were broken at Nideggen. Construction work was continued by William III. Like his ancestors, his successor was also at odds with the Electorate of Cologne. In 1242, after a successful battle, William IV left the then Archbishop,

Conrad of Hochstaden Konrad von Hochstaden (or Conrad of Hochstadt) (1198/1205 – 18 September 1261) was Archbishop of Cologne from 1238 to 1261. Life Konrad was a son of Count Lothar of Hochstadt, canon of St. Maria ad Gradus and of the old Cologne Cathedral, an ...

for nine months in the dungeon of the keep. But he was not the only one who got to know the walls of that dark prison. A few years earlier (around 1214), Duke Louis of Bavaria had to "make his quarters there". And Conrad's successor to the throne of the

Archbishopric of Cologne The Archdiocese of Cologne ( la, Archidioecesis Coloniensis; german: Erzbistum Köln) is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and northern Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. History The Electorate of Colo ...

Engelbert II of Falkenburg Engelbert II may refer to: * Engelbert II of Istria (died 1141) * Engelbert II, Count of Gorizia (died 1191) * Engelbert II of Berg (1185 or 1186 – 1225) * Engelbert II of Falkenburg (1220–1274), Archbishop of Cologne * Engelbert II of the Mar ...

, was also held captive there by the Jülich counts for more than three years in the period from 1267 to 1271. BurgNideggen06

Under Gerhard of Jülich, the settlement of ''Nydeckin'' was founded near the Burgflecken. Gerhard granted Nideggen

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

in 1313. William V, later Duke

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...

started to extend the castle in 1340, the ''

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 ...

'' at Nideggen being one of the largest castle halls built in the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

. In the late Middle Ages, only the Emperor's hall of

Aachen Town Hall Aachen Town Hall (''German:'' "Rathaus") is a landmark of cultural significance located in the ''Altstadt'' of Aachen, Germany. It was built in the Gothic architecture style in the first half of the 14th century. History Aachen Town Hall was b ...

and the Gürzenich in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

approached similar dimensions. William I was also the one who made Nideggen Castle his family seat in 1356. After the death of Rainhald of Jülich, the castle went to the family of the

dukes of Berg Berg was a state—originally a county, later a duchy—in the Rhineland of Germany. Its capital was Düsseldorf. It existed as a distinct political entity from the early 12th to the 19th centuries. The name of the county lives on in the modern ...

, whose heads from then on called themselves the Dukes of Jülich and Berg. With the extinction of the House of Jülich and Berg in 1511, Nideggen went into the possession of the

Duchy of Cleves The Duchy of Cleves (german: Herzogtum Kleve; nl, Hertogdom Kleef) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged from the medieval . It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and ...

. Hereditary disputes between the House of Cleves and Emperor Charles V over the Duchy of Geldern culminated in the

Guelders Wars The Guelders Wars (, German: ''Geldrische Erbfolgekriege'') were a series of conflicts in the Low Countries between the Duke of Burgundy, who controlled Holland, Flanders, Brabant, and Hainaut on the one side, and Charles, Duke of Guelders, ...

(also known as the Jülich feud), in the course of which the castle and town of Nideggen were destroyed by imperial artillery in 1542. In 1689, the castle was suffered a similar fate. During the

War of the Palatine Succession The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarc ...

, troops under

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

once again looted and burned it down. Earthquakes in 1755 and 1878 did the rest. The castle fell into ruins, was seized by the French and was sold by them in 1794 for demolition. It was subsequently used as a quarry. It was only on the initiative of the Nideggen townsfolk that an end was put to this. The castle was bought jointly and secured in 1888. In 1905, the county of Düren was given the castle as a gift. It is still in their possession today. From 1901, the castle was rebuilt for the first time and used as a museum of local history, but attacks during World War II caused unprecedented damage to the building structure. Reconstruction did not begin until the 1950s. The first steps have been taken to ensure that the Romanesque parish church of the castle site is restored. The

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 ...

was then restored in its original form and became home to the first castle museum in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

in 1979.

Description

Castle garden

The square castle garden is enclosed by walls and was built after the Middle Ages. A gate in the north-western corner of the wall led to the Burgflecken. In the middle of the west side stood a house from the Baroque period, which has not survived. It had walls linking it to the outer castle gate.

Outer gate with ''zwinger'' and gatehouse

The outer castle gate, built in the 14th century, served as an entrance to the smaller, outer courtyard of the castle, which at the same time had the function of a ''zwinger''. In the 16th century the gate building was replaced. It was not until the 18th century that the entrance was covered by a two-storey, south-east-facing building

timber-framed house Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

. This so-called gateman's house (''Pförtnerhaus'') was reconstructed in 1979 after having been destroyed during 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 opposi ...

. Today it is used by the Düren branch of the German Alpine Club and Nideggen Mountain Rescue Team.

Inner castle gate (main gate)

The late Romanesque gate building has been the only access to the main castle since time immemorial. It is connected to the

donjon A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in ...

of the castle by a curtain wall. After the gate had been destroyed by wars and earthquakes, it was rebuilt between 1901 and 1906 and extended with a staircase on the west side. Burg Nideggen01

Tower house

Built between 1177 and 1190, the tower house is the oldest part of Nideggen Castle. On its eastern side is a deep

neck ditch A neck ditch (german: Halsgraben), sometimes called a throat ditch,
at www.roadstoruins.com. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012. is a dry

. Around 1350, the tower was increased in height to six storeys. Inside, the castle chapel is on the ground floor, next to the dungeon. The remaining floors each have two rooms which, in addition to living quarters, were used as storerooms and garrison rooms (''Mannschaftsräume''). The tower was heated and had toilets from its early days. To be able to defend it well, its elevated entrance on the south side was well above ground level and could only be reached by ladder. Only when the main gate and the

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin incinctus: girdled, surrounded) is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. Fo ...

had been built, were the present ground-level entrance and a

staircase tower A staircase tower or stair tower (german: Treppenturm, also ''Stiegenturm'' or ''Wendelstein'') is a tower-like wing of a building with a circular or polygonal plan that contains a stairwell, usually a helical staircase. History Only a few e ...

built. After the roof had been sold for scrap at the turn of the 18th century, the brickwork suffered great damage in the period that followed and this was not rectified until 1906. From 1925 to 1944, the donjon housed a local history museum. After severe damage in the

, it was rebuilt in 1954 and 1955 and furnished with a roof again in 1979. Since then, it has housed the first castle museum in North Rhine-Westphalia.

''Palas''

With a length of 61 metres and a width of 16 metres, the ''palas'' was the largest hall building on a German castle of the 14th century. Both on the ground floor and on the upper floor, it housed a two-nave hall with twelve large

cross-window A cross-window is a window whose lights are defined by a mullion and a transom, forming a cross.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture'', 2nd ed., OUP, Oxford and New York, p. 214. . The Late ...

s. On its west and east side it is flanked by two octagonal side towers. At the north-western corner of the ''palas'' there was originally a

, on whose foundations stands the small tower of today's restaurant. Remains of columns are still to be found in the middle of the hall building, as well as remains of walls indicating the former location of the north wall. In the front wall was a secondary staircase to the upper floor. Below the palace there are cellar vaults, some of which are filled in. Among other things, they served as a kitchen. Burg Nideggen04

Kitchen tower

The east flank of the ''palas'' is protected by an octagonal tower from the middle of the 14th century, whose height until 1944 was still 14 metres. Fragments of a staircase, which presumably led to the top of the tower, have survived. The lower floor served as a storeroom. Primarily, however, the tower had to fulfil defensive functions, as indicated by its very small window apertures.

West Tower (so-called ''Damenerker'')

The West Tower with its large windows also consists mainly of 14th century buildings and served representative purposes. Inside, there are remains of a chimney, which is why the cabinets are also found here for the female members of the count's family.

Well

The

castle well A castle well was a water well built to supply drinking water to a castle. It was often the most costly and time-consuming element in the building of a castle, and its construction time could span decades. The well – as well as any available cis ...

partly followed a natural crevice and was once 95 metres deep. Since 1945, however, it has only been about 30 metres.

Buildings on the west and north side

The appearance of the buildings that used to stand on the west and north side of the castle is largely unknown. The present ones were rebuilt between 1901 and 1906 on old foundations. After their destruction in the Second World War, they were rebuilt again between 1948 and 1950. Today the castle restaurant is located here.

Castle museum

The Castle Museum opened in 1979 in the castle's tower house. It offers a glimpse of the Eifel region, which is rich in castles, through its exhibitions which cover an area of approximately 600 square metres. These enable the visitor to learn interesting facts about the function and the cultural significance of castles, as well as life in a medieval castle. In addition, they cover regional historical topics such as the important noble families of the Eifel and the history of the Duchy of Jülich.

Festival

In the summer, the county of Düren used to hold annual festivals at Nideggen Castle until 2010. In 2011, the festival venue moved to Schloss Merode.

References

Karl-Heinz Schumacher: ''Bausteine aus dem Mittleren und Oberen Buntsandstein''. In: ''Geographische Analyse der baulichen Verwendung von Natursteinen in der Eifel''. Aachen, 1988, (''Aachener Geographische Arbeiten''. Vol. 20), pp. 89–93. Castle history on the website of the town of Nideggen
retrieved 18 May 2014. Angela Pfotenhauer, Elmar Lixenfeld (eds.): ''Eifel'' (= ''Monumente-Edition.'' Vol. 12).

Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz The ''Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz'' ("German Foundation for Monument Protection") is a German private initiative founded in 1985 that works for the preservation of cultural heritage in Germany and to promote the idea of cultural heritage man ...

, Bonn, 2013, , p. 138. Klaus Ring: ''Eifeler Burgenmuseum im Bergfried der Burg Nideggen''. In: ''Burgen und Schlösser''. Jg. 20, Nr. 2, 1979, , S. 128.

Literature

* Wilhelm Avenarius: ''Burg Nideggen''. In: ''Alte Burgen schöne Schlösser. Eine romantische Deutschlandreise''. Gekürzte Sonderausgabe. Das Beste, Stuttgart, 1980, , pp. 154–155. * Walter Lonn: ''Neubau an der Ruine Burg Nideggen''. In: ''Burgen und Schlösser''. Jg. 20, No. 2, 1979, , pp. 129.

External links

History of the castle on the website of Düren county

Website of the castle museum

Nideggen Festival Games
{{Authority control Castles in North Rhine-Westphalia Castles in the Eifel Buildings and structures in Düren (district)