The Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces form a historical building complex in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which has been listed as a UNESCO cultural World Heritage Site since 1984. The buildings are connected by the spacious gardens and trees of the Schlosspark. Augustusburg Palace (German: Schloss Augustusburg) and its parks also serve as a venue for the Brühl Palace Concerts. The Max Ernst Museum is located nearby.

The palaces were built at the beginning of the 18th century by the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, Clemens August of Bavaria of the Wittelsbach family. The architects were Johann Conrad Schlaun and François de Cuvilliés. The main block of Augustusburg Palace is a U-shaped building with three main storeys and two levels of attics. The magnificent staircase was designed by Johann Balthasar Neumann.

The gardens were designed by Dominique Girard. An elaborate flower garden for an area south of the palaces was also designed, but it was restructured by Peter Joseph Lenné in the 19th century and turned into a landscape garden. Attempts to renovate the area have proven difficult, due to poor source material availability.

Falkenlust hunting lodge was designed by François de Cuvilliés and built from 1729 to 1740, in the style of the Amalienburg hunting lodge in the park of Nymphenburg Palace.

From shortly after World War II until 1994, Augustusburg was used as a reception hall for guests of state by the German President, as it is not far from Bonn, which was the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany at that time.

Augustusburg and Falkenlust Palaces (Brühl)

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The Electoral Palace (German: Kurfürstliches Schloss) in Bonn is the former residential palace of the Prince-Electors of Cologne. Since 1818, it has been the University of Bonn's main building in the city center, home to the University administration and the faculty of humanities and theology.

It was built by Enrico Zuccalli for the prince-elector Joseph Clemens of Bavaria from 1697 to 1705. The Hofgarten, a large park in front of the main building, is a popular place for students to meet, study and relax. The Hofgarten was repeatedly a place for political demonstrations, as for example the demonstration against the NATO Double-Track Decision on 22 October 1981, with about 250,000 participants.

Electoral Palace (Bonn)

Poppelsdorf Palace (German: Poppelsdorfer Schloss) is a Baroque building in the Poppelsdorf district of Bonn, western Germany, which is now part of the University of Bonn.

Design and construction

The design of a new structure to replace the old ruined castle of Poppelsdorf commenced in 1715 at the request of the owner, Joseph Clemens, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, who engaged the French architect Robert de Cotte. Clemens wanted a maison de plaisance that would be near his remodeled Bonn Palace 800 metres (1⁄2 mile) to the north. There was to be a canal between the two, following the example of the Palace of Versailles and the Trianon de Marbre.

De Cotte himself never travelled to Bonn to inspect the site, and on 24 May 1715 Clemens wrote to him: "I received your project for my Maison de Poppelsdorf, which pleased me infinitely, and I know nothing more beautiful or better conceived, but we are now obliged to consider the site on which it must be built."

No drawing exists of the plan for De Cotte's first project, but letters and subsequent plans indicate that it was square with two axes of symmetry at right angles to one another. It consisted of four two-storey wings surrounding a circular inner court with an arcaded gallery on its circumference. Clemens considered the plan too ambitious and asked de Cotte's assistant in Bonn, Benoît de Fortier, to revise the plan, reducing three of the wings to one storey, but leaving the garden wing with two. Clemens wrote to de Cotte: "I realized that it would be quite useless to erect so large a building on that site, which is but a cannon shot from town…. For the most part my retinue returns to the city at night, and I keep near me only those who are absolutely necessary to serve me."

The extant plan shows a square entrance vestibule with 16 columns: four free-standing, and the remainder engaged with the walls. The vestibule leads to the circular gallery, on the opposite side of which is a doorway leading into the main domed salon on the garden front. To the left of the salon is the elector's apartment arranged as an enfilade of grande salle, chambre d'audience, chambre à coucher (bedroom), and a cabinet. To the right of the salon is the salle à manger (dining room). The chapel is located in the center of the right wing, while the right front quadrant houses the kitchens and the concierge, and the left front quadrant, the stables. Minor rooms, stairs, and a loo occupy the corners between circular gallery and the main rooms in the garden side, and the corresponding spaces on the entrance side provide courtyards for the kitchens and the stables.

Models for this type of plan of a country house with an interior circular courtyard include the Villa Madama, Rome (begun c. 1516), and the Villa Farnese, Caprarola (begun 1559). Work came to a halt after Clemens' death in 1723, but his nephew and heir, Archbishop of Cologne Clemens August, undertook a second campaign of construction in 1745–1746.

Subsequent history

Under the Prussian rule, in 1818 the Palace and the nearby Park became part of the University of Bonn. In the same year the Park was converted to the Botanical Garden of Bonn, which today contains about 0.5 hectares of greenhouse area with eleven greenhouses and about 8.000 different plants.

In 1944 the Palace was heavily damaged by an Allied air attack. It has been rebuilt in a much simpler appearance from 1955 on.

Poppelsdorf Palace

Die Burg Lede im Bonner Ortsteil Vilich in Nordrhein-Westfalen war ursprünglich ein romanischer Wohnturm, aus dem sich im Laufe der Zeit eine gotische Wasserburg entwickelte. Sie ist als Bau- und Bodendenkmal ausgewiesen.

Geschichte

Die frühesten urkundlichen Erwähnungen stammen aus dem 14. Jahrhundert. 1360 wurde der ursprüngliche romanische Wohnturm von Ritter Johann Schillinck zur gotischen Burganlage ausgebaut. Im truchsessischen Krieg 1583 wurde die Burg zerstört. Das Stift Vilich kaufte 1761 die Ruine und das dazugehörige Gut. Nach der Aufhebung des Stiftes (1804) ging die Burg zunächst an das Fürstentum Nassau-Usingen, 1806 an das Großherzogtum Berg und 1815 an den preußischen Staat über, der sie 1820 an den Kölner Bankier Herstatt verkaufte. 1904 baute der Industrielle Otto Weinlig die Burg zu einem Landsitz mit Parkanlage nach englischem Vorbild und einer kleineren Gartenparterre aus. 1910 ließ er noch ein Kutscher- und Pfortenhaus errichten. 1930 gelangte die Burg über die Familie de Claer und den Direktor der Dillinger Hütte, Otto Weinlig, an die Gräfin Berghe von Trips. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg diente Burg Lede den Engländern als Kommandoquartier für den Befehlshaber und späteren britischen Außenminister Lord Carrington.

Heute

Der letzte Eigentümer, Freiherr von Loë, erbte die Burg 1987 von seinem Großonkel Friedrich Graf Berghe von Trips. Kurz nach dem Bezug ließ der neue Besitzer die Burg von Grund auf restaurieren. Die Burg wurde 2017 an Birgit Kulmer und Sandro Parrotta verkauft, die im Erdgeschoss eine Kunstgalerie (Parrotta Contemporary Art) eingerichtet haben.

Burg Lede

Schloss Nörvenich is a schloss in Nörvenich near Cologne, Germany.

The schloss was established in around 1400 by Wilhelm von Vlatten and was remodeled on numerous occasions over the centuries.

In the 15th century, the property fell through marriage to Konrad Scheiffart von Merode-Bornheim. Wilhelm Scheiffart von Merode and his wife Agnes von Bylandt enlarged the house in the middle of the 16th century to the West Wing. At the end of the 16th century, the castle fell through marriage to Baron Johann Otto von Gymnich, whose family remained in possession of it until the 19th century. It then passed to Count Wolff-Metternich von Gymnich, and became known for a period as Schloss Gymnich.

Just before the Second World War, the schloss was taken over by non-aristocratic owners, and since that time it has repeatedly changed hands. The sculptor Rückriem lived and worked here from 1963 to 1971, and several Can albums were recorded here in the late 1960s and early 1970s including Soundtracks and Tago Mago; the band moved out of the castle in late 1971. The building now houses the Museum of European Art.

In 1982, the Landesmuseum Bonn excavated the site and unearthed the remains of an earlier fortress, measuring about 11 feet (3.4 m) by 25 feet (7.6 m) and dating to around 1350, and medieval pottery. This earlier structure is believed to have been demolished down to the foundation in 1400 to enable the construction of a new, larger building.

The current two-storey mansion dates to the 18th century, and stands on a high basement. It has a heavy tiled hipped roof and dormers and Gothic brickwork. Around 1950, the greater part of the roof collapsed, and the building underwent extensive restoration. A number of rooms feature richly designed stucco ceilings in the Regency style, with allegorical figures and the arms of the former aristocratic owners commonplace.

Schloss Nörvenich

Palais Schaumburg is a neoclassical-style building in Bonn, Germany, which served as the primary official seat of the German Federal Chancellery and the primary official residence of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 until 1999. As the headquarters of the Federal Chancellery, it was simply known as the House of the Federal Chancellor (German: Haus des Bundeskanzlers). Since 1999, Palais Schaumburg has served as the secondary official seat of the German Federal Chancellery and the secondary official residence of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The late neoclassical palais was built between 1858 and 1860 for the cloth manufacturer Wilhelm Loeschigk. Bought by Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe, it was enlarged during the following years. On January 31, 1939, the army bought the palace from Ernst Wolrad, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe.

After World War II, the Belgian Army staff used the building until it became the official seat of the first chancellor of the Federal Republic, Konrad Adenauer, in November 1949. Two months later, he greeted the new republic’s first state guest, Robert Schuman.

Hans Schwippert rebuilt the building for the use as a Federal Chancellery in 1950. It was also extended by the so-called houses 2 and 3. By 1976, more space was needed, so a new building was planned. Some departments remained in the palais, which remained in use for ceremonial purposes. In 1963, the Wohn- und Empfangsgebäude des Bundeskanzlers, the so-called Chancellor bungalow (Kanzlerbungalow), in the modern style of architect Sep Ruf was built in the spacious park as a semi-official residence for the Chancellors.

Palais Schaumburg became home to the federal ministry for environment, conservation and reactor safety (Bundesministeriums für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit) when it was formed in 1986. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, five "Federal Ministers for Special Affairs" kept offices in the palais.

The palais was used at the signing of the treaty about the creation of a currency, economy and social union in 1990 by representatives of both German states.

Since the government move in 1999, Palais Schaumburg has served as a secondary official seat of the Federal Chancellery and secondary official residence for the Chancellor, in which different departments are accommodated.

The palais is not publicly accessible. Usually, the Haus der Geschichte provides the opportunity to book tours and to visit the historical place. But since August 2013, the palais has been closed because of building restoration, estimated for three years. Instead of that, the Haus der Geschichte offers an Online-Panorama-Tour. The virtual tour shows all exhibition rooms as well as three views from the outside, providing a look at the building and the park.

Palais Schaumburg

Die Burg Sievernich steht in Sievernich, Gemeinde Vettweiß im Kreis Düren, Nordrhein-Westfalen, direkt am Neffelbach.

Im Mittelalter gehörte die südliche Hälfte des Dorfes zu Kurköln, die nördliche zur Grafschaft Jülich. Trotzdem spielte die Burg bei allen kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen zwischen den Grafen von Jülich und den Erzbischöfen von Köln keine Rolle. Sie scheint nur ein wenig bedeutendes Kölner Lehen gewesen zu sein.

Als erster bekannter Burgherr wird 1153 Heinrich von Sievernich in einer Urkunde genannt. Nach 1456 starb die Familie von Sievernich aus.

Zu Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts war Burg Sievernich im Besitz der Beatrix von Petersheim. Sie heiratete 1410 Richard II. von Merode und brachte die Burg so an dessen Familie. Das Anwesen blieb rund 250 Jahre Eigentum derer von Merode, bis es schließlich durch die Heirat Judiths von Merode mit dem niederländischen Adeligen Cornelius van Gent den Besitzer wechselte. Maria, die Tochter dieses Ehepaares, heiratete 1674 Bertram von Quadt-Wickrath. Um 1780 veräußerte diese Familie die Burg an die von Wylich. Durch Erbschaft gelangte das Anwesen 1798 in den Besitz des Duisburger Stadtgerichtsdirektors Witgen.

Nach erneutem mehrfachem Besitzerwechsel kaufte 1841 die Familie Schwecht, die Burg Sievernich auch heute noch besitzt, das Anwesen.

Burg Sievernich ist eine große, regelmäßige Wasserburg mit einer dreiflügeligen Hauptburg und einer ebenfalls dreiflügeligen Vorburg. Die Hauptbausubstanz der Anlage gehört dem 15. bis 18. Jahrhundert an. Um 1860 erfuhr Burg Sievernich unter der Bauherrschaft der Familie Schwecht eingreifende bauliche Veränderungen. Der Treppenturm an der Rückseite der Hauptburg und deren Seitenflügel wurden damals erneuert. Der Torbau der Vorburg stammte ebenfalls aus dieser Zeit, wurde aber 1941 zerstört und durch einen Neubau ersetzt.

Direkt in der Nähe der Burg vorbei führt die alte römische Heerstraße von Zülpich nach Neuss. Sie wurde im Ort von der Krönungsstraße Aachen-Frankfurt am Main gekreuzt.

Die Besitzer betreiben heute in dem Anwesen ein Trakehner-Gestüt.

Burg Sievernich

The Godesburg is a castle in Bad Godesberg, a formerly independent part of Bonn, Germany.

Built in the early 13th century on the Godesberg, a hill of volcanic origin, it was largely destroyed following a siege in 1583 at the start of the Cologne War. In 1891, the German emperor Wilhelm II donated the castle's ruin to the city of Bad Godesberg.

In 1959, the ruin was rebuilt according to plans by Gottfried Böhm, to house a hotel and restaurant. Today, the restaurant is still in operation, but the hotel tract has been divided into apartments.

The site has a controversial history. Growing out of the nineteenth-century Heimat movement, historians speculated that in the pre-Christian era, the inhabitants probably used the peak to call to the god Wotan, the god of war, death and the hunt, and other attributes, establishing a custom that led eventually to the erection of a house of prayer on the site. They found early mention of the site in 9th century documents, and again in the 12th century, documents continue to refer to it as Gotensberg, or Gotensperg. first mentioned in documents from the early 8th century, was supposedly built on an old cult site and its name derived from the old Germanic Wotansberg, Woudensberg, or Gotansberg. In the 10th century, documents from the reign of Otto I in 927, and Otto II in 974, suggested that a religious community had been located on the mountain peak, thus the name Gottesberg. From this speculation, the idea emerged that the fort itself was established on an ancient cult site.

The fortress foundation stones were laid by a vicar upon the order of Dietrich I, the Archbishop of Cologne, who was himself in disputed possession of the Electorate and fighting to keep his position. After Dietrich's death in 1224, his successors finished the fortress; it featured in chronicles of the 13th through 15th centuries as both a symbolic and physical embodiment of the power of the archbishop of Cologne in his many struggles for regional authority with the patricians of the imperial city of Cologne. By the late 14th century, the fortress had become the repository of the Elector's valuables and archives, and by the mid-16th century, was popularly considered the lieblingssitz, or the favorite seat (home), of the Electors.

The fortification had been originally constructed in the medieval style and in the reign of Siegfried II of Westwald (1275–1295) successfully resisted a five-week siege by Count William of Cleves. Successive archbishops continued to improve the fortifications with stronger walls and expanded moats, adding levels to the central Bergfried, which was cylindrical, not square like many medieval donjons, expanded the inner works to include a small residence, dungeons, and chapel, fortified the walls, added a curtain wall, and improved the roads. By the 1580s, it was an elaborate stone fortress, and it had been enhanced partially in the style made popular by Italian military architects. Although the physical location did not permit the star-shaped trace italienne, its cordons of thick, rounded walls and massive iron-studded gates still made it a formidable adversary. Its height, some 400 feet (122 m) above the Rhein (Rhine), on the peak of a steep hill, made artillery fire difficult.

Fortifications such as this, and the star-shaped fortresses more commonly found in the flatter lands of the Dutch Provinces, made warfare both difficult and expensive; victory was not simply a matter of winning a battle over the enemy's army, but of traveling from one fortified and armed city to another and investing time and money in one of two outcomes: ideally, with a show of extraordinary force, convincing the city leaders to surrender the city, or reducing the city to rubble and storming the ruins. In the case of the former, when a city capitulated, it would have to quarter troops at its expense, called execution, but the soldiers would not be permitted to plunder; in the case of the latter, no quarter was given to the defenders.

Godesburg

Zülpich Castle or the Electoral Cologne Sovereign Castle of Zülpich (German: Kurkölnische Landesburg Zülpich) is the landmark and symbol of the town of Zülpich in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its origins may be traced to a Roman castrum. The present site was built in the late 14th century as a symbol of sovereignty and outpost of the archbishops of Cologne against the County of Jülich.

Razed by French troops at the end of the 17th century, the ruins of the lowland castle ended up in private hands. The Zülpich manufacturing family of Sieger opened a schnaps distillery in the castle until 1870 that operated until the 1980s. In the Second World War 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.

Zülpich Castle is a modest brick building with an almost rectangular plan with high towers at the corners. It is one of the classic quadrangular castles of a type ideal for the Late Middle Ages. Its austere-looking defences are almost entirely devoid of architectural features and underline its fortress-like character which befits its location at the southwestern corner of the medieval town of Zülpich and its incorporation into the town's fortifications.

The enclosed quadrangular structure was originally surrounded by a moat up to twelve metres wide. At its southern, western and eastern corners are round towers 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 platforms with brick battlements. The corbels also use trachyte as a material, while the ogival arched frieze above is made of tuff. All the round corner towers once had residential rooms with fireplaces and garderobes. In the walls, which are up to three metres thick are spiral staircases. The western tower facing the town also acted as a dungeon.

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 walls 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 rectangular windows with lighter cut stone frames that are only interrupted by two garerobes.

The best preserved exterior wall is on the southeast side with the main gate made from carefully cut bunter sandstone ashlars to which the drawbridge used to lead. Witnesses thereof are a deep, blind niche, which frames the ogival arch 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 musste. Für die buttresses of this bridge, building material from Jülich Palace was used, a building that had stood on the same spot since 1350.

Zülpich Castle

Die Hardtburg ist die gut erhaltene Ruine einer Wasserburg aus dem Hochmittelalter in der Nähe des Euskirchener Stadtteils Stotzheim am nördlichen Rand der Eifel.

Die Kernburg ist bereits seit dem 18. Jahrhundert ruinös, die größten Teile der Burgmauer und die Vorburg, in der sich heute eine staatliche Revierförsterei befindet, sind aber sehr gut erhalten. Seit 1965 wird die Burg instand gehalten. Sie ist frei zugänglich, der Bergfried ist aber nur zu bestimmten Zeiten geöffnet (Herbst und Winter), die sich nach den Brutzeiten der dort nistenden Vögel richten.

Geschichte

Die Burg ist vermutlich im 11. oder 12. Jahrhundert entstanden. Als Erbauer wird ein Herr von Har(d)t vermutet, der ab 1105 in Erscheinung tritt. Die erste urkundliche Erwähnung stammt aus dem Jahr 1166. 1205 nahm Erzbischof Bruno von Sayn die Burg ein und zerstörte sie dabei teilweise. Weiterhin ist bekannt, dass Graf Friedrich von Hochstaden die Hardtburg 1246 dem Kölner Erzstift vermachte. Die dann kurkölnische Burg war bis 1794 Verwaltungssitz des Amtes Hardt mit 12.100 Hektar Fläche.

Die ursprünglich primitive Burganlage wurde im 13. Jahrhundert umgebaut. Die Vorburg und der Zwinger sind erst im 14. Jahrhundert entstanden und bis heute erhalten geblieben. Wie Zeichnungen von 1725 belegen, war die Burg damals bereits ruinös.

Hardtburg

Burg Veynau ist eine mittelalterliche Wasserburg. Sie zählt zu den bedeutensten Burgen im Rheinland. In Nordrhein-Westfalen ist die größte Burganlage. Sie steht nahe dem Euskirchener Stadtteil Wißkirchen unmittelbar am Veybach.

Der imposante Bruchstein-Bau ist auch heute noch von einem Wassergraben umgeben. Die weitläufige Burganlage umfasst eine innere und eine äußere Vorburg mit zwei runden Türmen, die eigentliche Hauptburg und zwei Ecktürme. In die Burg gelangt  man durch einen historischen Torbogen in der alten Wehrmauer.

Die Burg befindet sich im Privatbesitz des Freiherrn von Elmendorff, der sie mit Unterstützung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen restaurierte. Seit 1985 unter Denkmalschutz und wird heute noch als Wohn- und Geschäftssitz genutzt.
Die Außenanlagen und einige innere Teilbereiche sind frei zugänglich.




https://www.eifelfuehrer.de/touristische-ziele/burgen-und-schloesser/burg-veynau