Schloss Burg
Encyclopedia
- For the castle in Luxembourg, see Berg CastleBerg CastleBerg Castle , also called Colmar-Berg, is the principal residence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. It is situated in the town of Colmar-Berg, in central Luxembourg, near the confluence of the Alzette and the Attert, two of Luxembourg's most important rivers.-History:The estate at Colmar-Berg first...
Burg Castle (Schloss Burg), located in Burg an der Wupper
Wupper
The Wupper is a right tributary to the Rhine river in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Rising near Marienheide in western Sauerland it runs through the mountainous area of the Bergisches Land Berg County and enters the Rhine at Leverkussen, south of Düsseldorf...
(Solingen
Solingen
Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...
), is the largest reconstructed castle in North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and a popular tourist attraction. Its early history is closely connected to the growth of the Duchy of Berg.
Early history
In the beginning of the 12th century (after 1133), count Adolf III of Berg built Schloss Burg on a mountain over the river Wupper. The old castle of the counts, Castle Berge in Odenthal near AltenbergAltenberg (Bergisches Land)
Altenberg is an Ortsteil in the municipality of Odenthal in the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and was formerly the seat of the Counts of Berg...
, was abandoned. The original name of the new castle was Castle Neuenberge (Newmountain), or in Latin, novus mons, novum castrum, or novi montis castrum. Not until the 15th century, after significant reconstruction as a hunting castle, did it receive its current name reflecting its palatial extension.
His great-grandson, Count Adolf VI of Berg was a participant in the Fifth Crusade
Fifth Crusade
The Fifth Crusade was an attempt to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering the powerful Ayyubid state in Egypt....
and died at the siege of Damietta
Damietta
Damietta , also known as Damiata, or Domyat, is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo.-History:...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in 1218. His younger brother, archbishop Engelbert II of Cologne
Engelbert II of Berg
Count Engelbert II of Berg, also known as Saint Engelbert, Engelbert of Cologne, Engelbert I, Archbishop of Cologne or Engelbert I of Berg, Archbishop of Cologne was Archbishop of Cologne and a saint; he was the victim of a notorious murder by a member of his own family.-Early life:Engelbert was...
, took over the rule of the county perhaps in violation of the rules of succession. As count Engelbert of Berg he raised the main building 1218-1225. Engelbert was a very powerful man, not only archbishop and count, but also advisor and chief administrator to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and guardian
Legal guardian
A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...
and tutor of the later king Henry (VII) of Germany
Henry (VII) of Germany
Henry was King of Sicily from 1212, Duke of Swabia from 1216, and King of Germany from 1220. He was the son and co-king of Emperor Frederick II and elder brother of Conrad IV of Germany...
. But he also made enemies and on November 7, 1225 he was murdered by his nephew Friedrich von Isenberg.
The War of succession for the Duchy of Limburg
War of the Limburg Succession
The War of the Limburg Succession, was a series of conflicts between 1283 and 1289 for the succession in the Duchy of Limburg.The cause of the War of the Limburg Succession was the death of Waleran IV, Duke of Limburg in 1280, and his only daughter Ermengarde of Limburg in 1283. Waleran IV had no...
influenced the history of the castle. Count Adolf VIII of Berg
Adolf VIII of Berg
Adolf VIII of Berg was the eldest son of Count Adolf VII of Berg and Margaret of Hochstaden....
participated successfully in the crucial battle of Worringen
Battle of Worringen
The Battle of Worringen was fought on June 5, 1288, near the town of Worringen , which is now the northernmost borough of Cologne...
in 1288. After the battle, the opposing archbishop of Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Siegfried II of Westerburg
Siegfried II of Westerburg
Siegfried II of Westerburg was Archbishop of Cologne from 1275 to 1297.Siegfried was the second son of Siegfried IV, Count of Runkel in Westerburg...
, was kept prisoner in the castle. Adolf VIII now was able to proceed to elevate his town, Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, to a city and was able to control traffic on the Rhine river. In the 13th and 14th century Schloss Burg remained the main residence of the counts of Berg. Five years after King Wenzel
Wenceslaus, King of the Romans
Wenceslaus ) was, by election, German King from 1376 and, by inheritance, King of Bohemia from 1378. He was the third Bohemian and second German monarch of the Luxembourg dynasty...
elevated Count William
William VII of Jülich, 1st Duke of Berg
William VII of Jülich, 1st Duke of Berg was born in Jülich, the son of Gerhard VI of Jülich, Count of Berg and Ravensberg, and Margaret, daughter and heiress of Otto IV, Count of Ravensberg, and Margaret of Berg....
to the position of a duke in 1380, Düsseldorf became the capital of the Duchy of Berg. Schloss Burg continued to serve as a hunting castle and was used for ceremonial events, hence it became a "Schloss" (representative castle). Thus in 1496, Maria of Jülich-Berg was engaged as a child to John of Cleves-Mark (later John III, Duke of Cleves
John III, Duke of Cleves
John III the Peaceful, Duke of Cleves and Count of Mark was a son of John II, Duke of Cleves and Matilda of Hesse, daughter of Henry III, Landgrave of Upper Hesse.John III became Regent of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg in 1521, and Lord of Ravensberg in 1528.John represented...
). Their wedding took place 14 years later at Burg and led to the unification of the duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. The second daughter of this couple was Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves was a German noblewoman and the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England and as such she was Queen of England from 6 January 1540 to 9 July 1540. The marriage was never consummated, and she was not crowned queen consort...
, briefly married with Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
.
Decay
In 1632 Swedish soldiers laid siege to the castle. After the Thirty years war, in 1648, Imperial troops destroyed the fortifications of the castle including the keep, walls, and gates. In 1700, the main building was partially reconstructed and subsequently used for administrative purposes. 1849, the castle was sold to be scrapped, decayed, and became a ruin.Restoration
The architect Gerhard August Fischer from BarmenBarmen
Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which in 1929 with four other towns was merged with the city of Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. Barmen was the birth-place of Friedrich Engels and together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the...
proposed in 1882 the reconstruction and submitted drawings and plans based on old documents, primarily using the castle’s appearance in the 16th century. Since 1890 the castle reconstruction committee led the restoration of the castle during the next 24 years. Painters from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, formerly Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, is the Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf. It is well known for having produced many famous artists, such as Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Demand, and Andreas Gursky...
participated. With the erection of the Battery Tower
Siege tower
A siege tower is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. The tower was often rectangular with four wheels with its height roughly equal to that of the wall or sometimes higher to allow archers to stand on...
in 1914 the work seemed completed.
In the night of November 26, 1920 a large fire destroyed much of the castle. Subsequently visitors had to pay entry fees and the money was used to restore and rebuild the castle again. Reconstruction lasted from 1922 to 1925. In 1929 the Engelbert monument by the sculptor Paul Wynand was dedicated to honor the builder and archbishop.
Today
Today’s appearance does not exactly match the condition documented by Erich Philipp Ploennies at about 1715. The reconstructed castle of today is a major public attraction. It also contains the Museum of the Bergische Land. The castle church is popular for weddings. The castle also is home to the Memorial for Deportation and the Memorial of the German Eastern Provinces with church bells from KönigsbergKönigsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...
and Breslau. In addition, commercial shops for souvenirs are located on the grounds.
The surroundings offer hiking trails to the forests and to Unterburg, that is where the village is located, at the foot of the mountain. There you can buy the Burger Brezel, a local pretzel
Pretzel
A pretzel is a type of baked food made from dough in soft and hard varieties and savory or sweet flavors in a unique knot-like shape, originating in Europe...
specialty; the pretzel bakers even have a monument. An aerial train connects Unterburg and the castle.
Burg used to be an independent township until it became part of Solingen
Solingen
Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...
in 1975.
Trivia
Linguistically, "Schloss Burg" would be translated as "palace castle" - a tautologyTautology (rhetoric)
Tautology is an unnecessary or unessential repetition of meaning, using different and dissimilar words that effectively say the same thing...
, yet in German "Schloss" refers to a representative building and "Burg" to a fortification - an oxymoron
Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms...
.
Literature
- Dirk Söchting: Schloss Burg an der Wupper. Sutton Verlag 2004, 96 Seiten, 124 Abbildungen, ISBN 3-89702-761-5.
- Dirk Soechting: Schloss Burg als Postkarte, Verlag Ute Kierdorf, Remscheid 1980, ISBN 3-922055-26-5.
- Elke Lutterbach: Schloss Burg an der Wupper (Ritterburgen Band 1). J.P. Bachem Verlag 2003, 144 Seiten, 250 Abbildungen, ISBN 3-7616-1699-6