Last weekend I visited my local castle and I want to share some pictures with my /int/ernational friends. I'm going to dump about 50 pics so feel free to post about your local castle, palace, fort, whatever place of interest you would like. Since I'm also going to post some historic info about the castle feel free to ask questions about the castle or medieval Germany as a whole.The castle nowadays is called Schloss Burg, which means Palace Castle directly translated into english. But its original names were Novum Castrum, Novus Mons or Novi Montis Castrum - so New Castle, New Mountain, New Mountain Castle. Construction began at the beginning of the 12th century and were completed by 1150 AD. And it really was the new castle for the noble family as they abandoned their old castle and relocated their entire court to this new location. Over time of course the structure of the castle was changed multiple times. The most drastic changes occured in the 15h century when the castle was transformed into a "hunting lodge" as the noble family (a different one this time) relocated their center of governance again - in this time period people began to call it a palace and since it was stilly visibly a castle the modern name is derived from that. During the 30 Years it got occupied by imperial, swedish and spanish forces and badly damaged. After the war it was slighted; all military buildings and most civilian buildings were destroyed. Only the Palas (the central civilian/residential building) was left standing and it remained a local administrative center until the napoleonic occupation.
After 1815 the land fell to Prussia which had no interest in maintaining this husk and the castle further fell into ruin. However in the 1880s the romantic movement strongly focused on castles and parts of the wealthy population were interested in reconstructing the castle as a whole. Those building efforts were financed by donations and were for the time done with the best historical understanding but fictional historicist elements were still incorporated - even though the architect was firmly interested in rebuilding the 12th century romanesque structures. In the end the condition of the 15th and 16th centuries were mainly rebuild. A big donator was Emperor Wilhelm II. who also got immortalized in a wall painting. The reconstruction was largely finished by WW1 and still continued during and after the war but in the 1920s a fire destroyed much of the roofing and many historical artifacts. The new roof was greatly simplified and not fully waterproof - an issue that was remedied by 1950. Partial reconstruction and renovation efforts were done throughout the 20th century and are still ongoing. But the whole of the structure has been standing since 1910.Pic rel is the outer Ring Wall which was fully reconstructed by 1893.
Here the small courtyard after the outer gate. The slate covered timber framing superstructures would date to the 15th century.
Looks cool
A battery/artillery tower of the 16th century. Also fully reconstructed it was rebuilt on the wrong location and is also larger than the original. The clock is an addition from the 1950s, as the tower now houses a memorial for the displaced Germans after WW2 and it has bells from Breslau and Königsberg.
I love battery towers.
I like my women like I like my battery towers. Stout, rotund and with multiple openings for my ordinance.
Now for a VIP. Engelbert I. of Cologne/II. of Berg:It was the Berg family who originally were the lords of the land. Originally small counts they quickly rose to prominence and founded multiple branches that spread all over the wider region. From the Berg family also hailed multiple Archbishops of Cologne who at times were also the Counts of Berg. Thus secular and ecclesiastical territories were united often under one family. Engelbert was the one such a person. Despite being a man of the cloth he fought in the Albigensian Crusade of 1212 in southern France. In 1216 he became the Archbishop of Cologne and in 1218 the Count of Berg as his brother died in Egypt without producing an heir. This led to enmity with the Duchy of Limburg as they had married on of their sons to the daughter of Engelberts brother. This led to an open war between Limburg and Cologne-Berg, which Engelbert was able to decide for himself. Now with a secure base of power he began to expand the influence of the Archdiocese often at the cost of lesser abbeys and smaller counts. This was aided by the fact that he was friends with Emperor Friedrich II. and Engelbert also influenced the emperor to publish the decree Confoederatio Cum Principibus Ecclesiasticis in 1220, which gave great privleges to the ecclesiastical princes of the realm. Thus the smaller rulers simply had to take it that Engelbert built castles and founded cities near their lands or sometimes even on directly on them. But fate would catch up with Engelbert as in 1225 he was ambushed while travelling. As he was quite the warrior and unusually tall for the time a grave fight broke out in which Engelbert was killed. But this was quite the problem for the ambushers (Count Isenberg) as they wanted to capture Engelbert, imprison and force him to revoke many of his expansions. Now Isenberg was responsible for killing the Archbishop of Cologne. 1/2
Isenberg wanted to dump the body of Engelbert at Schloss Burg but the garrison refused to open him. Thus he was forced to travel with the corpse to Altenberg Abbey, which took time - time in which the news spread. And while Isenberg travelled to Rome in 1226 to get absolution he was captured upon his return and broken on the wheel by the former allies of Engelbert. Modern research thinks that the whole affair could have been a conspiracy by the Dukes of Limburg as they would have profited the most from Engelberts death. And they also suspiciously quickly laid siege to some of Engelberts castles shortly after his death. 2/2Pic rel is just an impression of the general landscape of the area.
The central keep; the foundation dates to the 12th century but everything up is from 1900/1905. Als ich ein Kind war, gab es einen Kerker mit gruseligen animatronics at the ground level but that is gone now. Sadly the whole keep is generally quite bare now. There was a remodelling campaign a few years ago and now it has become rather bare. One example: one exhibit was about medieval cooking. You would expect to find a reconstructed kitchen but no - only a large slab unto which kitchenware and food items were projected. And within the keep there were multiple examples of such "modern" exhibitions. But at the top there was a geographic model of the wider area with places of interests (mines, mills, streets, cities) highlighted on it. That was cool.
Now we entere the Palas part and finally there was a lot of stuff to actually look at. Wheellock pistol form the 17th centuryDagger and knife from the 16th century
A small cannon on a 19th century presentation gun carriage
A reconstruction of a 12th century scale armor that was found in the area. Behind a halberd, a partisan, a glaive and a metal shield.
Reconstruction of a mail hauberk + helmet. The armors to the right of it are originals.
A gothic suit of plate, mail shirt and some polearms in the back
16th century cuirass. Most likely munitions grade.
Gauntlets, stirrups, spurs and tournament lance heads.
Close up of the lance heads.
Helmets and a pavise shield.
>>224981478The tiles architecture is pretty nice you see thar all across nrw its pretty pleasing
A battlesword, a decorative disk with a pair of knights and a horse muzzle
it's not much but that's what we've got
A pellet crossbow for hunting and a signal horn.>>224982870Yeah I really like it too. Slate is really common here.
A spiked collar for hunting dogs.
>>224981378I went to your country as a kid to see Trier, the birthplace of Karl Marx and also some irrelevant Roman rvins
Miniature wheellock pistols from the 16th century.
A neat little crab figure from the 16th century.
A 13th century sword and some carolingian denarii that were found in 1952 within the jug. >>224983063Welcome, cumrade. Porta Nigra is a scam. It's barely black and most importantly it isn't a port:D Jokes aside Trier is nice. Did you also visit the Aula Regia?
A stags head figurine from 1570.
Random stuff. The glassware dates to the 15th century. The ceramic pitchers to the 14th.
>>224981592a very cool castle indeed, but >BreslauWrocław*
Now for another important event: the Battle of Worringen of 1288.With the death of Engelbert in 1225 the male line of the Berg family died out and over the female line the county fell towards a side branch of the Limburg family. The new Limburger counts continued with expanding the county until the clashed against the Archdiocese of Cologne, whose rulers still were interested in exanding their power. Now the old allies (regarding the territories independently from the rulers) found themselves on the opposite sides of the War of the Limburg Succession. To make a long story short: in 1288 the Archbishop of Cologne and his allies (amongst them the Count of Luxemburg; distantly related to the Limburg family) fought agains the Duke of Brabant and his allies (amongst them the Count of Berg; distantly related to the Limburg family too). The brabantian side won and the battle was actually decided by the charge of peasants from the County of Berg, who were previously routed from the field but counterattacked with a vengeance. It was said that the peasants couldn't distinguish the noble coat of arms and thus started killing every knight, who were exhausted by that point of the battle.The killing spree of the peasants only ended when they captured the carroccio of the Archbishop of Cologne and the enemy knights surrendered en masse. From this day onward Brabant became the dominant power, a member of the Limburg-Berg family as provost took over the government of the Archdiocese, the Archbishop was no longer allowed to live within the city of Cologne which also became a Free City and the County of Berg would gain several privleges which it used to develop several cities - amongst them the modern rival city of Cologne, Düsseldorf. Pic rel is a rather neat model of the battle.
In the top left you can see the bergish peasants. The secen depicts the opening stages of the battle.
Translation of the panel:"Romerike Berge!" - A legend is bornWith the battle cry of "Romerike Berge!", so "glorious Berge", did hundreds of bergisch peasants charge into the Battle of Worringen on the 5. June 1288. Thus says the legend. But it is unclear if this battle cry actually existend - it is however certain that peasants helped their liege lord, Count Adolf V., to win on this day. Yet the men had no military training nor regular weapons; they fought with rakes, shovels and flails against their foes. They simply fought for their lives because as serfs they were forced into battle. With luck they survived - Glory they could not achieve.
>>224983063How can it be irrelevant when it's one of the best-preserved Roman gatehouses in the world? It's quite clearly a superb and important vestige of the mighty Roman Empire and everyone should know of it
>>224985268no one cares about dead empires tho
Some Astrolabes, which were astronomical instrumentshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrolabe
A 17th century Reichsadlerhumpen. Those were large glasses with a painting of the imperial eagle and a selection of important states within the HRE on them. Usually the Prince-Electors and other large states.
We also have a castle, it housed Emperor Maximilian I, it has some incredible views towards the main avenue of the city
Madonna with Jesus statuettes from the 15th/16th centuries.
Gothic belt buckle. No date given. It is a rather slim item. >>224985895Wasn't that this one Habsburger that got killed by french backed guerrillas?
A note with the respective donations for a single year. Note that The Emperor donated 15000 Mark which in todays money would be 1.304.026,91 €.
>>224981478>censoring' strangers facesextremely based and a scandal it is not part of the basic etiquette
Those donations would secure Wilhelm II. dedicated wall painting of his family tree. While said family tree begins with Adam and Eve it also shows how the Hohenzollern family had a relation to the the the Berg lands as a member of the Brandenburg-Hohenzollern married a daughter of the duke of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg.Also note that behind Wilhelm II. is the bow of a battleship that demonstrates his favorite pet: the navy.
Here two other important members of the Brandenburg-Hohenzollern: Friedrich II. the Great and his father + Wilhelm I. the first Emperor of the German Empire.
>>224986052more or less, he actually was here because the mexican conservatives wanted to replace the current goverment at that time and wanted some sort of monarchy to "stabilize" the country. Also Mexico had to pay various debts to France so they invaded and occupied mexico, which enabled him to become emperor, the french actually backed him militarily. He actually got killed by the republicans which opposed any kind of monarchy and foreign goverment/intervention, and after the french troops left mexico, Maximilian no longer had any military power to fight back.
Here a 19th century painting about the ambush of Engelbert I.
Here how the Count of Isenberg gets rejected by the garrison of Schloss Burg.
Here how the volunteers join the Prussian Army during the Wars of Liberation in 1813/14. Due to the time of the reconstruction there are some nods to Prussia throughout the castle. Years before the renovations there was also an exhibition about the wilhelmian era. I wonder if this returns.
A statue about Adolf I. von Berg who was the first count that could actually be verified by documents. He lived from ~1045 to 1106.>>224986654Ah that was it. I just knew that the french were involved somehow.
And lastly a cute drawing of a squirrel in front of the castle as it stands now.
Proper /int/ thread.
Did you know that we have castles IN AMERICA that were actually used during wars?Yes, it is truly an amazing country with a history, unlike Europe.
>>224988259Forts. And yes I'm quite jelly of your forts as those are often in prestine condition to european ones, as those often got destroyed, slighted, rebuilt, reused, etc.
Bump
