Location: Bad Godesberg Map
Constructed: 1210
Burg Godesburg is a medieval castle near Bad Godesberg in Rhein Valley of Germany. The name of the hill ofBurg Godesburg over Rhine river is translated from German as “god’s mountain”. Since the early Germanic tribes have settled in the region high grounds were used for sacrifices to the highest Germanic god Wotan or occasionally spelled as Gwodan. Thus another name that is tied to the hill- Wotansberg (Wotan’s mountain). Romans who settled the Western side of the Rhine river also established a shrine here. The castle that stands here was build around 1210. Cologne archbishops used this fortification as a place of residence. In 1583 Archbishop Gebhard converted to Protestantism and new archbishop Ernest von Bayern elected same year started so called Cologne War. His Spanish and Bavarian troops took the castle and blew it up. It was rebuild again and finally destroyed in 1794. A museum inside is open to the tourists.
The hilltop castle is located on the Godesberg (known
today as Burgberg), a volcano that was extinct in prehistoric times and
is the only prominent elevation in the Godesberg Rhine valley funnel. An
already Roman settlement was proven by an altar stone walled in the
Godesburg. In 722 the mountain was mentioned in a document as the Ubian
cult site of Woudensberg (Wotansberg).
On October 15, 1210, the
Archbishop of Cologne, Dietrich I von Hengebach, laid the foundation
stone for a new building. Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden extended the
castle in 1244 by adding the first five storeys of the keep. Archbishop
Walram von Jülich increased this to 32 meters and had the outer bailey
built.
During the Reformation, the Archbishop of Cologne, Gebhard
I von Waldburg, violated the Augsburg Religious Peace when he married
Countess Agnes von Mansfeld and converted to Calvinism. He thus
triggered the Truchsessian War. Troops of the newly elected Elector
Ernst of Bavaria besieged the complex in 1583. The Godesburg was
destroyed when the wall was blown up during an attack. The conquest
succeeded on December 17, 1583, when a Catholic mercenary was able to
get into the castle through the toilet. Other attackers followed him
along the same path, so that the crew, threatened inside and outside the
partially destroyed walls, finally had to surrender.
In 1891
Kaiser Wilhelm II gave the ruins to what was then Godesberg.
In
May 1951, 22 Kösener Corps founded the "community of interest" at the
Godesburg, the forerunner of the reconstituted Kösener
Senioren-Convents-Verband.
In 1959 the castle was rebuilt
according to plans by Gottfried Böhm. An extension housed a hotel
restaurant at the beginning, today only the restaurant is in operation.
The former hotel wing is rented, divided into smaller apartments. The
city of Bonn offers the possibility of a civil wedding in the Godesburg
on selected dates.
At the Bad Godesberg Castle Cemetery near the
Michaelskapelle there are many richly designed burial sites of the upper
classes from the 19th century. The politician Herbert Wehner, the film
actor Paul Kemp and the famous landlady Aennchen Schumacher also found
their final resting place here.
In recent years, the Godesburg
has been largely renovated. By 2003, the city of Bonn had spent 2.7
million euros on remodeling the gastronomy. In June 2006, the renovation
of the keep was completed, in which a small information center on the
history of the castle was set up. In July 2006, the city of Bonn
installed information boards in all four cardinal points on the viewing
platform at the top of the tower. From September 2012 to February/March
2014 the keep was renovated and scaffolded for it. The courtyard of the
Godesburg can be reached via an elevator.